Forbidden Knowledge
by Mike Taurguss
Summary: Solo Gabrielle: At last! Gabrielle and David reach Egypt, intent on enjoying their honeymoon. Instead, they find a world on the brink of Chaos, a group of old enemies, and another priest with an attitude. So much for that romantic villa by the sea...
1. Egypt At Last

Authors Note: This story is a stand alone adventure, however it does refer to characters created in an earlier story. For the full history of Nickoli Vampyra, Imani, and Arijani, you need to read Immortal, Inhuman, Accursed.

Thanks and enjoy!

Mike

**Forbidden Knowledge**

The thin foil package glittered in the morning sunlight as it fluttered between David's thumb and forefinger. All of the tiny little plastic windows had been punctured except one. The tiny white pill rattled in its isolated little bubble.

David looked out over the vast expanse of ocean and sighed. His long dark hair writhed in the wind. The salt spray washed over the mirror red lenses of his sunglasses.

Aboard the ship, he looked strangely out of place, standing in a pair of beaten old blue jeans, faded gray tee shirt and black leather vest.

His boots were in the cabin, along with the rest of their gear. The fact that he was barefoot was the only similarity between him and the sailors moving quickly about the deck.

His eyes looked down again, longingly at the foil pack. He smiled slightly as he realized that it spoke, metaphorically, of the dwindling of his modern supplies. Each day pushed him more and more into the same vein as his wife. Soon, his only loose connection to his real time would be the clothing that he wore, and even that would not last forever.

Already, he could feel the twinges of queasiness that he always got when travelling on a boat. He forced the sensation down and tried to focus on something else. His eyes watched the hazy horizon as he thought.

Again, he smiled. He was sitting on the bosom of a sea that existed two thousand years before he was even born. On his way to a land that had been nothing more than pages and speculation in his ancient history classes in college.

He pulled the damp glasses from his face and wiped them dry. His brown thoughtful eyes stayed fixed on the horizon. The jagged four pointed scar over his left eye stood out a deep purplish crimson against his tan skin. He blinked as the salt spray misted over his face. His left eye itched, which amused him, since it was nothing more than a glass prosthetic. He blinked the mist out of his eyes and reset his glasses. His arms found the rough wooden railing and he leaned over, his gaze thoughtfully staring out at the vast blue expanse before him.

The ship rocked gently, like a cradle as the steady wind billowed the large main sail.

Captain Licno, a grizzled, barrel chested man in salt stained breaches and tunic stepped next to him and grunted approvingly.

His myriad of golden hoops jingled in his ears as he moved.

"It's a good steady wind," he commented. "We should be in Alexandria by tomorrow evening if it keeps."

David nodded absently. Alexandria. From David's time, it was nothing more than a series of vast ruins beneath the ocean. A smile touched his lips as he realized he would soon be walking on streets that, from his perspective, had not been above the water of nearly two millennia.

It took a few minutes before Licno realized that David did not desire idle conversation, which was fine for him. His attempt at conversation was a courtesy. If his passengers desired quiet and solitude, so much the better. He stared at the sea for a few moments more and then nodded as he withdrew.

David's mind wandered back to his college days as he focused on remembering all the theories about life in ancient Egypt that he had studied. Now, he would put a great many of those speculations to the test. A thrill of excitement ran thorough his body like a subtle tingle.

A step sounded behind him and he turned to see Gabrielle standing behind him. She still had the soft, drowsy look of someone who had just awakened from a comfortable nights rest. Her golden hair was slightly mussed.

She wore her deep red and black halter and skirt, the design reminded David of tiger stripes, which he found most apt as a description for his wife's personality.

"Welcome back to the land of the conscious," he greeted her with a smile. "How are you holding up?"

Gabrielle pushed a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes and stepped up next to him.

"Fine," she replied, leaning her head against his shoulder. "You?"

It had been a standard response for over a week now, as each of them tried to comfort and console the other.

For David, it was coming to terms with the death of the young Amazon woman, Yania, who had died by his hand in a raid on the village of Tripolis. The girl had been no older than fifteen and superbly trained. A simple move that David had used often to disarm opponents had failed, and instead, David had inadvertently stabbed the young girl with her own blade. Yania had died right before his eyes. That image still haunted his dreams, though with less frequency than before. David had passed the self deprecating stage of his anxiety and was now coping with the guilt.

Gabrielle, for her part, was also dealing with a loss. After the two of them had settled on taking a ship the rest of the way to Egypt, David had informed her that she had been pregnant when they were in the Amazon Village, and that she had lost the child during her challenge for leadership against Queen Alia's champion.

The champion had actually ended up being one of the women that had stormed the beach at Helicon several years prior.

Gabrielle was dealing with the loss of not only the unborn child, but also a fellow Amazon sister gone mad.

Gabrielle's green eyes flicked down and saw the small, flat foil packet David was extending to her. Gratefully, she took it and popped the tiny white pill from its protective capsule.

"Did you already take yours?" she asked as she popped the Dramamine into her mouth and took a swallow of water.

David shook his head. "Nope."

Gabrielle looked up at him.

"Why not?" Gabrielle asked.

David smiled. "Because that was the last one." He folded the expended packet and slipped it back into the pocket of his vest.

Gabrielle looked at David in concern. "Then what are you going to do?"

David sighed. "I'll manage. Tomorrow might be along day for you, though. Licno says we won't reach Alexandria till early evening."

Gabrielle gave him a mildly stern look. He had done it again, putting her needs first as he always tried to do.

"You're going to be miserable," Gabrielle chided him.

David shrugged again. "The dose from yesterday will last a while yet."

"In that case," Gabrielle replied, a cool smile asserting itself on her face. She reached into her small bag and drew out the weathered deck of Bicycle playing cards that David had brought. "You want a rematch?"

David eyed his wife dubiously. Since his arrival to this time, he had managed to teach Gabrielle several things. One of the more esoteric ones had been the fine art of poker, to which she had shown quite proficiency.

"Besides," Gabrielle said, still smiling. "You still owe me twenty from yesterday?"

"Do I?" David replied.

"Yes, you do," Gabrielle said.

"But honey," David said sincerely. "We're married, which means that we share everything, so I really didn't lose my money. It's our money, so it doesn't matter who's actually carrying it, right?"

Gabrielle shook her head. "Nice try." She waggled the cards again invitingly. "Double or nothing? Or are you afraid you might lose?"

David sighed in resignation. "You're making me pull out the Man Card again, aren't you?"

Gabrielle nodded eagerly. Poker had been one of the things David had brought back with him that she truly enjoyed. It was a game of chance that required skill, knowledge and luck in equal measure. She strode over to the small barrel that they had been using as a table and seated herself on the short stool, shuffling the cards expectantly.

"You know," David said. "Where I come from, they had an eight-hundred number for people like you."

He seated himself across from her and waited as she shuffled the deck. He cut the cards and handed them back to her. She set her small money purse on the barrel and looked at David expectantly. Reluctantly, David did the same.

"Okay," Gabrielle said with authority. She began dealing the cards. "No peek baseball, threes and nines are wild. The buy on fours is one dinar."

David looked at Gabrielle in a mixture of shock and admiration. "Man, I have really corrupted you, haven't I?"

It was a simple ritual to pass the time. The game invariably led to conversations which would invariably lead to matters of the heart. It was a way for the two of them to heal from their recent wounds. For both of them, the context of a game made the talks easier.

Gabrielle noted that David's sarcastic wit had begun to return and with it, his confidence.

By the same token, David had noticed Gabrielle's sense of humor returning. Some of the fears and anxiety regarding their relationship after the loss were beginning to dissipate. She had been withdrawn for some time, but he could sense the old passion reawakening slowly.

David watched as Gabrielle flipped the next card in her small stack. She ended up with a full house, queens over sevens. She folded her arms and smiled triumphantly. She still had two cards left to draw from if needed. She set five dinars in the center of the table with a flourish that made David smile.

"Getting pretty cocky, aren't you?" David mused as he looked at her hand. He glanced down at his cards. He had two pair, sixes and fours. Not a strong hand, but workable since two of the cards were wild cards. He called her bet and flipped the next card over.

The six of diamonds – David smiled and reordered his hand, now with three sixes and one card left.

He rested his finger on the remaining card and smiled. "Tell you what," he said smoothly. "If I win this hand, you get to do the cooking for the next week. What do you say?"

Gabrielle looked at his hand and smiled. The odds of his winning were astronomically against him. "Fine. But If I win," she paused and that familiar, slightly seductive look appeared on her face. "Well. I'll think of something."

David smiled and lifted the card. The four of hearts.

Gabrielle squealed in delight. Then David held up a coin.

"If you wouldn't mind?" he said. He tossed the coin on the pot and sat back. "I'll take my extra card."

Gabrielle's momentary glee vanished when she realized that his play was not over.

"Just flip it over," David said, smiling as he attempted to hide his nervousness.

Gabrielle lifted the card and looked at it, and then she seemed to wilt. She threw the last card on top of David's hand.

"Well," David said proudly as a rush of relief flooded over him. "Unless you can beat four sixes, it looks like I get all my meals catered this week?"

Gabrielle looked down at her hand and sighed.

"How do you do that?" she asked, mildly frustrated.

"I cheat," David replied easily.

She was about to protest when she saw David's smile. He dropped ten coins into the pot.

"Call, or fold?" he asked.

That touch of arrogance, though much missed in many ways, only fueled her desire to show him up. She slapped ten more coins on the little table and flipped the next card.

The jack of spades seemed to be leering at her in mischievous glee when she saw it. Nervously, she lifted the last card and looked at it. Her face remained set as her eyes flicked from the card to her husband and back again. Then she set it down.

David's triumphant smile melted into one of disbelief as he saw the Queen of hearts looking back at him.

"Well," she said with a musing smile. "That would be four queens. And I don't think you have any more cards to play, do you?" she made a show of looking about his side of the table. "No, it doesn't look like it."

David's face changed to a slight frown. "You're a terrible winner, you know that?"

Gleefully, Gabrielle drew the coins to her, pouring most of it into her purse.

"And you still owe me twenty from yesterday," she reminded him.

David grabbed the cards and began shuffling them forcefully. HE stared at her in defiance as he set them down. She cut the deck and David sat back.

"All right, smart stuff," he said. "Black Mariah, low spade in the hole splits the pot, and I hope you have a lot of cash."

One of the things David noted with considerable relief was how much Gabrielle was smiling and laughing again. Even if he ended up with an empty moneybag on this trip, the laughter would be worth it. It was good to see that happy fire in her eyes again.

He had a little trouble convincing himself of that an hour later, when his money bag was indeed empty, but only a little.

The beginnings of David's seasickness started around the time of their midday meal. He paused in mid chew and forced the bile back down into his belly.

Gabrielle looked at him in concern as his color went to a pale shade of gray/green.

"David?" She asked. Instantly, she knew what was coming and she edged up next to him, rubbing his back.

"It started, didn't it?" she asked knowingly.

"Oh yeah," David replied thickly. "With a vengeance."

He got to his feet and forced himself to straighten up, breathing deeply of the fresh salty air.

His eyes closed and he forced his breathing to slow to a more relaxed pace.

As Gabrielle watched, David's color improved visibly. When his eyes opened, they were fixed on the distant, immovable horizon.

He let a long, easy breath hiss out between his lips. "Much better."

Gabrielle looked up at him in amazement.

"How did you do that?" she asked in awe.

"With difficulty," David replied, keeping his eyes fixed on the horizon.

Gabrielle looked out to the sea, then back at him, and out at the sea again.

"What are you looking at?"

When David answered, his voice sounded slow and very far away. "Absolutely nothing."

After a few more moments, he blinked and looked down at her.

"That's interesting," Gabrielle commented. "How did you do that?"

David sighed with relief and moved to lean against the railing. "I just picture something unrelated to what's happening, and hold it in my mind. If I focus on that, then I can't focus on getting seasick, can I?"

Gabrielle had to think about that for a moment. "I guess that makes sense."

David smiled at her uncertainty.

"You ever notice that when you're completely absorbed about one thing, other things don't really matter?" he asked. "It's like the idea never enters your mind?" His voice dropped off as he heard a gentle slapping sound.

They both turned to see the main sail of the ship slowly falling limp against the mast.

David looked at Licno who only shrugged his massive shoulders. David was certain they both shared the same thought.

"Looks like we won't make Alexandria by tomorrow evening," David sighed.

Gabrielle sighed in resignation. "I'm sorry."

David frowned. "For what?"

Gabrielle looked about them for a moment.

"For this," she said, indicating the ship and the ocean surrounding them. "For taking the last of the medicine – "

"I gave it to you," David offered.

"For the way I've been lately," Gabrielle finished a little downcast.

"Hey," David smiled reassuringly. "I know you wouldn't have done anything dangerous if you had known."

"David," Gabrielle admitted. "I should have known. Deep down inside, I think, maybe I did know."

David looked at her, his face softening in understanding. He put an arm around her shoulder.

"I know it doesn't help much," he said sincerely. "But we have time. I'm not going anywhere."

"I know," Gabrielle nodded. "I guess I expected you to be, I don't know, angry with me?"

"What in the Hell for?" David asked sincerely. "How could I be angry with you over that? It happened. It wasn't fair to either of us, but it wasn't your fault either. I thought you understood that?"

"I do. I do," Gabrielle admitted. "It just doesn't seem like enough."

David held her to him and felt her head resting against his chest.

"Baby," he said softly. "We have time. After all, you're only fifty, what six? Seven? Something like that?"

Gabrielle looked up at him and slapped his chest. "Hey!"  
"And I'm, um," his brow furrowed in thought. "What? Negative nineteen hundred and sixty, something or other. I was never good at integers." He looked down at her again and smiled.

"I get the point," Gabrielle retorted, and some of the depression melted away.

"We have time," David finished seriously. Then he looked up at the sail hanging slack against the mast. "Plenty of time, it seems." He finished. Then he looked forward and aft and sighed heavily. "I'm really not up for this."

Gabrielle gave him a sympathetic pat on the back, thinking that he was referring to the additional time that would be spent on the ocean.

Instead, David stopped at the rear of the main deck, and turned to face the mast.

Gabrielle stopped short when she realized that their little cabin was not his destination.

David planted his feet apart and let his arms drop to his sides. HE stood and stared at the limp sail as if his eyes might burn through it.

Gabrielle stepped around him and watched, her arms folding across her chest as she leaned against the railing.

David's eyes lost their focus and he began to move slowly. His arms rose, stretching out to either side as he inhaled deeply. Then the air slowly left his lungs as he drew his hands back in close to his chest, palms up.

Gabrielle both felt the shift in the railing behind her as well as smelled the ships Captain as he slid up next to her, watching David with mild curiosity.

"What's your friend doing?" He asked as he leaned closer to the young Amazon.

Gabrielle wrinkled her nose, but other wise tolerated the odor of the ships captain.

"I think he's trying to summon a wind for us?" Gabrielle replied, secretly praying that he would succeed.

Every muscle in David's body was tense as a drawn bow. Gabrielle could see the sweat forming n his brow from the exertion of his efforts.

His hands stretched back out and then returned several times, his limbs quivering as he moved.

She could see his lips moving but was unable to discern the words.

Then David's body seemed to slowly relax and his stance changed. He drew his left arm in close to his body and stretched his right hand, palm out, towards the limp sails. Gabrielle was taken aback by the sheer intensity in his stare. It went well beyond anything she had ever seen before, even when David was enraged. She suppressed a sudden shiver, and even noticed the portly captain standing up straight in mild fright.

David's lips continued to move though he spoke too quietly for them to hear the words.

There was the hint of a rustle in the massive fabric of the sail, then it began to shudder softly and finally caught the fresh breeze that rushed up off the sea behind them. The ship almost lurched forward under the sudden gust of wind. After that, the breeze remained steady, driving them the last distance towards the land of the Nile.

David let his arm drop wearily and breathed as if he had been running for miles. He drew the air into his lungs with large heaves of his chest and wiped the perspiration from his brow.

Gabrielle was at his side instantly, helping him over to the small barrel that had served as their card table earlier. David leaned upon it gratefully and let his head drop back, face turned up toward the sun.

"That was amazing," Gabrielle said in appreciation. "I didn't know you could do that?"

David smiled and rose, lifting a bucket tied to a length of rope and tossing the pail overboard.

"How do you think I got to Mogador so fast?" he asked her with a smile. He drew it back up and dumped the cool ocean water over his head.

The water cascaded over him, soaking his clothing and hair. He let the bucket fall back to the deck and shook his head fiercely, sending a spray of water in all directions.

Gabrielle held up her hands to ward off the sudden shower.

"Hey!" She protested.

David leaned his arms against the rough wood and let hair hang down as he rested his forehead on his hands.

"Much better," he said wearily. Gabrielle saw the goose bumps rise on his exposed flesh as the cool breeze contacted the moisture on his flesh. He shivered and then pulled his soaked shirt from his body and twisted the water out of it.

"Well, then," He said as he pulled the damp garment back on. "If you don't mind, I think I'll go to the cabin and pass out."

He gave a polite nod to Captain Licno and stumbled wearily towards the small door at the back of the main deck.

Gabrielle followed David into the tiny cabin and watched as he fell onto the small pile of their sleeping rolls. One hand rose to rub his eyes.

"I'm going to sleep now, honey," he said almost drunkenly. "Tell the good captain to hold my calls."

His hand fell across his chest and his eyes shut. In a moment he was breathing slowly and steadily, fast asleep.

Gabrielle moved next to him and covered him with a light blanket. She paused on her way out and leaned against the doorway, looking down at him. She smiled in appreciation.

"You are just full of interesting surprises, aren't you?" she said, and she closed the door as she left.

The sun was setting against the western horizon a few hours later when Gabrielle, who was busy trying to focus on something other than the motion of the ship, suddenly felt an unnatural rising sensation in the pit of her stomach. She frowned as she felt the slight increase of weight that indicated something had pushed her higher. Her hands fell on the rail and she looked about. Everything looked normal, as far as she could tell.

"Captain!" one of the aft crew members called. "Something strange here!"

Licno took the stairs at a pace that seemed impossible for a man of his stature.

"What is it?" he ordered.

"Water level is too low," the crewman reported nervously.

"What's going on?' Gabrielle asked, stepping up next to the captain.

"The water level is low," Licno said.

"I just felt us rise?" Gabrielle said in confusion. "Wouldn't that mean the water is deeper?"

Licno simply stared at her, his own expression one of mild confusion. He shrugged.

"How far are we from Alexandria?" She asked.

Licno looked up at the sail straining against the strong wind.

"With this wind, we should be there sometime tomorrow morning." Licno replied.

All three of them looked out at the ocean. It was calm and quiet and hardly a swell could be felt beneath her feet.

"On a hunch, she turned and went to their cabin. David was still stretched out, fast asleep in the bedroll. It looked like he hadn't even moved since she left him there.

Setting aside the guilt at what she was about to do, she gently shook his shoulder.

"David?" she asked. "David, wake up."

He groaned, causing her to wince in sympathy.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "But something strange happened a little while ago?"

David grunted his question in response.

"The ocean got shallower all of a sudden, but everyone felt the boat rise?" Gabrielle asked.

David rolled over and sighed. "Sounds like an undersea subsidence." Then he flopped over and closed his eyes again.

"Undersea subsidence?" Gabrielle asked, her brows furrowing.

David held one hand out parallel to the floor. "It's when a shelf of coastline drops into the ocean." He dipped his hand to the deck. "It pushes the surrounding land mass out, which can cause the ocean bed to shift or rise," he yawned. "I learned about them on the Discovery Channel."

Gabrielle's eyebrows rose and she nodded. "Okay," she said. "Undersea subsidence. Interesting."

"Very," David muttered and he dropped back off to sleep.

She paused at the entrance and took another look at him. Then she slowly shut the door and left him in peace.

She stepped a few paces from the door, still musing over David's groggy words.

Licno leaned over the rail from the deck above.

"Did he have anything interesting to say?"

Gabrielle didn't get a chance to respond. The cabin door burst open and slammed against the wall as David practically flew out, fully awake, with eyes wide.

"Undersea subsidence!" he blurted excitedly, but Gabrielle saw dread in his eyes. "That's it!"

"Yes," Gabrielle said nervously. She had never seen him so – what? Worked up? Frightened?

David spun quickly. "Captain? Are you still bound for the harbor at Alexandria?"

Licno was taken aback by the question.

"Of course we are," he answered brusquely.

"Well, change your course!" David barked sharply. "Make for the mouth of the Nile!"

"What?" Licno replied in surprise.

David had already turned back to Gabrielle, his eyes were like saucers.

"Kehmet!" he blurted.

"Yes?" Gabrielle replied slowly.

David's hands were hovering before him, trembling with excitement. "When we booked the passage, I told Licno we wanted to go to Egypt!"

"Yes," Gabrielle nodded slowly. "I was there, remember?"

"And Licno looked at me like I was out of my melon!" David continued. "It wasn't until I told him I wanted to go the 'The Land of the Pharaohs' that he understood, and he said 'Kehmet'!"

"David," Gabrielle held up a hand. "Slow down. You're starting to scare me."

"Kehmet!" David said for the third time. "I just realized what that meant!"

Gabrielle was beginning to get concerned. David's face was flushed with excitement. His entire body was tense, as if it would explode.

It was clear from Gabrielle's expression, that she was completely lost. David forced his reeling mind to slow down.

"Back when I was in college – I mean in the future," he closed his eyes for a moment and shook with frustration. "Forget it. When I was in college, I had to assist at a dig on the Giza Plateau. We found a lot of interesting things, but I digress. One of the things that I learned about was the fact the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were responsible for maintaining the balance between Chaos and Harmony. It was something they called Ma'at!" David began pacing back and forth. "Now, there are very few references directly referring to Egypt as Kehmet! It was more like a mixed up translation by Budge – don't ask. The man was brilliant, but unimaginative! Anyway! On the Rosetta Stone, found by Napoleon was a statement that referred to the land as Kehmet!"

"I think you've established that part, David," Gabrielle was almost pleading now. "Please, slow down?"  
"Don't you get it?" David faced her. His eyes were still wide and wild. "It's a shift in enunciation!"

Gabrielle was shaking her head helplessly. She glanced at Licno who merely shrugged helplessly.

"Kehmet!" David said again. If he said it one more time, Gabrielle was ready to bash him on the head.

"It's the result of a modern translation of a language that hadn't been spoken for more than a thousand years! No one really knew how to pronounce it, or spell it?"

Gabrielle placed both hands firmly on her husband's shoulders.

"David! Stop!" she cried out. His entire body was still trembling.

He forced himself to take several deep breaths.

"Just slow down," Gabrielle said in a calming voice. She held him in her gaze. "Take a few deep breaths and start over, from the beginning, okay?"

David's hand rubbed his head as he tried desperately to calm down. It didn't work too well.

"Remember when we first met?" David blurted. "You spoke Greek – I spoke Greek, but we still had trouble understanding each other!"

"I remember," Gabrielle answered.

"You said my Greek sounded strange," David explained. "It sounded wrong, because you were two thousand years behind on how the language had changed over that time!"

Gabrielle frowned.

"It's called the Law of Consonantal Shift!" David explained. "In a nutshell, it basically states that a language or words will modify themselves over time, causing the actual pronunciations to shift to something different. You say potato, I say potatoe. You say tomato, I say tomatoe, you follow me now?"

"I think so?" Gabrielle still had that frown.

"The point is, we are going to the land of Kehmet," David said and Gabrielle sucked in a breath, forcing her fingers not to clench into a fist.

"Right?" Gabrielle said through gritted teeth.

"But that's not what Licno said to me!" David said quickly.

"I said 'Kehmet'," David explained. His hands rose again in excitement. "But Licno said 'Kaymat'!"

Gabrielle's eyes suddenly widened at the similarities.

"What does that mean?"

"Okay," David said, resuming his pacing, though at a slightly slower pace. "Now, the word, 'Kehmet', as translated in the modern context, translates in one dialect, to Egypt, or 'Old Lands'."

"I don't understand what that has to do with it?' Gabrielle shook her head.

"Because I'm not done yet!" David replied. "Now, both pronunciations are two syllables, and very similar, BUT, they assume the word is a single word!"

"You just lost me," Gabrielle admitted.

"Follow it with me," David explained. "Kehmet is a modern supposition, based on the assumptions of translators a thousand years after the language vanished. They had to assume a lot!"

"Okay," Gabrielle replied.

"Now, work backwards with the word," David explained. "Kehmet used to be Kaymat. Still a single word and still translatable to the derivative 'Egypt'!"

"Okay?" Gabrielle agreed.

David stared at her for a moment, and then gestured towards her. "Go back with it further. Kaymat, Kay-Maat, Keh Maat, Ke- Maat, Ka-Ma'at?"

Gabrielle's eyes widened in understanding.

"As the enunciation changes, there is a possibility that the meaning changes as well!" David continued. He froze suddenly and frowned. Then he wheeled around and stared at Licno. "Have you adjusted that course yet?" He barked.

Licno snorted. "No, I have not! I have a cargo to drop in Alexandria!"

"Alexandria is gone!" David bellowed back. "That was what caused the tide to be so whacked!"

Licno, Gabrielle, and most of the crew on the ship all looked at him in disbelief.

It took a few moments for Licno to find his voice. "What do you mean, gone?"

"Gone! Finito! Adios! Downed in the drink! Lost! You follow? The port, dock, harbor, library, Cleopatra's tomb and summer palace all deep-sixed in an earthquake!" David said quickly. "Now point this tub towards the Nile Delta if you want a chance to survive!"

He wheeled back to face Gabrielle.

"When you walk the word backwards, the translation changes!" He prattled on. "It actually becomes two words! And those two words have a completely different meaning!"

"The Pharaohs were charged with maintaining Ma'at. Maintaining balance!"

"I follow," Gabrielle said, feeling a mixture of jubilation and dread balling in her stomach. "So, what does the original translation actually mean?"

"Ka Ma'at translates to 'the balance'!" David replied. "So, in actuality, the 'Land of the Pharaohs' is actually 'the Land of The Balance', got it?"

"The balance between Harmony and Chaos?" Gabrielle put two and two together.

"Exactly!" David said. Then he turned quickly back to face Licno. "Set the damn course!"

Licno, still reeling with the possibility that his destination might no longer exist, looked at David for a long moment. When he saw the earnest certainty in his face, his doubt melted away.

"Adjust course to the Nile Delta." He ordered.

David sighed in relief and turned back to Gabrielle. He was about to resume his explanation when he felt Licno step up behind him.

"Perhaps you can explain how you seem to know that some disaster has occurred?" he asked expectantly.

David looked at him and then back at Gabrielle. She raised an eyebrow expectantly and gestured for David to continue.

David held his hands together in front of his lips thoughtfully. Then he nodded.

"All right. For nearly three thousand years, the nation of Egypt – Kehmet – has existed on its own, ruled by the Pharaohs who were worshiped at the same level as the Gods in the pantheon, right?"

Both of his audience nodded in understanding.

"So what if the Pharaohs were more than just rulers?' David asked. "What if there was more truth to the worship of the Pharaohs than just overzealous gratitude?"

This time both of them shook their heads.

"What if the responsibilities of the Pharaohs did require the maintaining of balance between harmony and chaos?" David asked. "What if they actually did it?"

"What?" Gabrielle asked incredulously. "Actually maintained the balance of the universe?"

"Sure!" David answered. "Or, at least, played a major part in it?"

He looked at the two of them, both with doubtful expressions on their faces.

"Oh, come on!" David said. "The Pharaohs ruled this kingdom for almost three thousand years! In all that time, how many major events have happened? Not too many, right?"

"There was that eruption in Pompeii?" Gabrielle offered.

"And the Island Kingdom of Atlantis fell into the sea," Licno offered. "At least, that's what I've heard?"

"Okay," David replied. "So, no one's perfect! The point is that a Pharaoh has been in charge for all that time, and then, BAM! In walks Julius Caesar, snatching up kingdoms like a kid in a candy store! He conquers Kehmet and turns it over to the Tolimey family! Then Cleopatra gets the call! She grows up in this land, learns the language and is as familiar with the culture of this land as anyone else? She yanks control from her little brother, gets him out of the mix, and everything's just peachy until Caesar gets hold of her and starts dishing out other parts of the empire to her! The Senate kills him and sets their sights on Kehmet again, because Cleopatra has a son, compliments of the late dictator!"

Gabrielle and Licno looked at him in shock as he rattled off details that no one should be privy to.

"How do you know all this?" Licno asked. Gabrielle only smiled slightly and shook her head.

"Long story," David said quickly. "Anyway, Cleo gets Mark Antony on her side, holds off the Romans for a short time, and then the two of them buy it! Suddenly, there is no one to maintain the balance. The Priests of Kehmet aren't going to give any sacred knowledge to their new Roman dictator! They'd rather burn in Hell!" He turned suddenly and looked at Licno.

"Were you running cargo into Kehmet during the second Roman invasion?"

"Was I?" Licno scoffed. "Not on your life! The Roman Navy wouldn't let a rowboat through their lines!"

"But you were familiar with the land before the war?"

"Yes," Licno replied.

"Tell me," David asked. "Where was the Library from the harbor?"

"Quite close," Licno said. "You could see it for some time on approach. A lot of Captains used it and the great lighthouse as their landmarks."

"I was forgetting about that," David muttered, a twinge of regret touching his voice. "That'll be gone as well. But it could be seen from the Delta, right?"

Licno shook his head. "The glow from it could, at night. But not the building."

David stamped his foot. "Then I can't prove it to you and get us into a safe place at the same time. You're just going to have to trust me, Captain."

"Then answer my question," Licno countered. "How do you know all these things?"

David sighed. "Because I've already seen most of it."

Licno looked at him in wonder.

"He's a Priest, remember?" Gabrielle said quickly. "He's also a seer. He's been seeing things for the last few months. Stuff that he hasn't been able to put together," She looked at him quickly. "Until now."

"That was how you brought the wind back," Licno said in a whisper of awe. "You called it!"

David nodded. "Yes, I did. And I'm going to have to call a bigger one if we want a chance at making it to the delta before the rebound gets back!"

Again, Gabrielle frowned. "Rebound?"

David moved his hands back and forth. "When the land mass slid into the sea, it pushed the water out of the way. We were close enough to the land not to get plowed over by the wave because it was still building underneath us. It's also why the water is lower than it should be now. That wave is going to crash against something on the opposite side of the sea and come ripping back here. When it does, we're in for one hell of a ride."

Licno nodded understandingly. "Tsunami."

"Exactly," David replied. "If we make for the harbor, that wave will pick us up and slam us against anything in our way! If we're at the mouth of the Nile?" he held his hand out to the terrified Captain. Dawning appeared on his face.

"We might ride it out!" he said excitedly. "Down the Nile!"

"Bingo," David nodded. "Have all available crew start shifting your cargo to the rear of the hold! We want to be stern heavy when it hits."

Licno frowned. "Why?"

David's smile began to creep across his face. "Ever been surfing?"

Gabrielle saw that smile, and the slightly mad look in his eyes. She waited until Licno was out of earshot, bellowing orders to his crew.

"David?" she said. "This is another one of your crazy ideas, isn't it?"

"Oh no," David replied, his smile fading. It had apparently been for the benefit of the Captain. "This is by far, the craziest I've ever had."

"But it'll work, right?" Gabrielle asked earnestly.

David looked at her and shrugged. "I have no idea." He kissed her suddenly. There was something in that kiss of desperation and hope. "If it doesn't. This has been one hell of a ride."

He turned quickly away and headed for the cabin, stripping off his shirt. When he re emerged, he wore only a pair of shorts and his hair was tied back.

"Cap!" he called. "I want to inspect the rudder and its mounts! I need a sling!"

Licno tossed a large coil of rope down to him. David set up the makeshift swing and draped the rope over the rear rail. He wrapped the large loop beneath his posterior and looked down at the clear blue water hissing below. After a few moments' consideration, he fetched a second rope and tied it off, letting that one hang down, trailing in the water behind them.

"Just in case I fall," he said as Gabrielle watched him.

"David," Gabrielle said. "Be careful."

He kissed her again and swung his legs over the rail, leaning out over the ocean.

"Oh yeah," he muttered. "This is definitely the craziest idea I've ever had." He glanced down at the two large pieces of wood slicing the water at the rear of the ship.

"Hey Licno!" he called. "Don't make any wild turns!"

Licno looked back and nodded. Then he tied off the wheel and nodded again.

David pushed off the back of the ship and dropped slowly towards the water. The rail creaked slightly from the strain.

Gabrielle stood at the edge of the rail, watching as David swung back and forth between the two massive rudders. He kicked his feet and swung to the port rudder and looked at the massive bronze pins holding it in place. After a few minutes of close examination, he released his hold on the top of the rudder and let himself swing gently over to the other. Then he lowered himself further.

"What are you doing?" Gabrielle shouted down at him.

David looked up at her and smiled encouragingly.

"The top and middle mounts look great!" He called back. "I need to check the lower ones!"

"But those are beneath the water!" Gabrielle shouted.

David let more slack out without allowing himself to drop. He estimated the distance and tied it off, then taking several deep breaths he reached to the gap between the rudder and the hull and dropped into the water.

The current pulled at him, trying to break him free of the ship as he continued down to the mount. This pin was slightly corroded, but still quite solid. He smiled and looked across at the other mount. That one, even at this distance, seemed wrong somehow. He had to get over there for a closer look. Reaching up, he hauled on the rope, pulling himself out of the water as he drifted away from the ship. When he was clear, he swung back to the side of the ship and then repeated the action, dropping back down next to the second rudder.

Gabrielle heard the crack beneath her whitening knuckles. She saw them, and then the section of railing snap off. Three feet of the rail, still wrapped by the rope, went falling to the water below.

"David!" Gabrielle cried out, but he couldn't hear her.

He was beneath the water and nearly at his destination when something yanked his fingers free and sent him spinning away. Instantly, he knew that his line was broke. HE kicked for the surface and his back up line. It snaked above his head like a serpent, slicing through the water. At the last moment, David grasped the end of the line and was again jerked forward. The coarse rope slid through his hands, cutting the flesh. The salty water sent rivulets of pain down his arm, but he forced himself to hold on and kicked for the surface.

His head breached the top of the water and he inhaled deeply. Gabrielle looked as if she were about ready to dive in after him. She grasped the rope and began hauling on it with desperate strength.

Smiling, David began hauling himself toward the ship hand over hand. They pulled him up out of the water. He rolled over onto the deck and sat up, soaked, salty, and smiling like a banshee.

Something slammed into his shoulder hard.

"Ow!" David protested. He looked up at Gabrielle, her fist still clenched. "What was that for?"

"I told you never to scare me like that again, you idiot!" Gabrielle shot back vehemently. "First your Valkyrie! Then Valcis back in Poditea! And now this!"

She knelt down before him, her green eyes alive with anger.

"I don't care what you saw on your little trip back to me!" She hissed at him. "I don't believe the future is set! You are not indestructible, David!"

David sobered quickly and nodded. "You're right. That was a bit much on the risky side. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't risky!" Gabrielle shot back. "It was stupid!"

She stood and stormed a few paces away, her arms crossed over her chest as she seethed.

"Did you see anything?" she asked, not looking at him.

David was still trying to get water out of his ears. "What?"

Gabrielle turned back to look at him. "Did you see anything?"

David shook his head. "I think they'll hold up."

Gabrielle nodded, her lips pursing as if she were about to say something else. Then she knelt before him again.

"I want you to stop taking so many risks," she said seriously.

"What do you mean?" David replied.

"It is my crazy idea," David replied.

"That's not the point." Gabrielle replied. "One of the crew could have done that just as easily, without the mishap."

"But would they know what to look for?" David countered easily.

"And do you?" Gabrielle challenged. "I know you have a wonderful gift of foreknowledge. And you know a lot about a lot of different things. But I don't remember boats being a part of your life?" She looked at him hard. "In fact, I don't remember carpentry, medicine,-"

"Hang on a second," David interrupted her. "Okay, you're right. I'm not trained as a doctor, but I've been treated by a bunch. And the building bit, I've had some experience helping the guys put on a roof or two, or building furniture."

Her eyebrows rose and David knew it would be best for him to come clean.

"Fine," he admitted. "But I have come up with a few things that have helped."

"I'm not saying that you haven't." Gabrielle said gently. "All I'm saying is that you like to get in the middle of everything, even when you really don't know what's going on. One of these days it might not work out the way you want it to. You have a gift for magic, but you can't reorder the whole world. You have some knowledge about a lot of things, and I love that about you. But you've also gotten yourself in over your head a few times." She sighed. "And every single time, it was because you wanted to keep me out of trouble."

"What's wrong with that?" David asked.

She smiled and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing," she said. "Nothing. But you said you wanted into my life, all the way. That means we face things side by side, or back to back, not with me behind you. I've held back taking the lead on some things, because I truly didn't know what to do, and other times because I was afraid that you might take it the wrong way. I can't do that anymore." She paused for a few moments. ""And you have to understand that there will be times when I will have to do things on my own, just like there will be times when you have to do things on your own. That's part of what it means to trust each other."

David let that settle for a few moments, his mind wandering back to the adventures they've had and he finally nodded.

"You're right," he said at last. He nodded again for emphasis. "You are right, on all points."

Gabrielle was momentarily stunned. She had been expecting an argument of some kind, or, at least, and agreement to disagree.

Instead, David chuckled to himself and looked up at her. "I've been a complete ass on more than a few occasions."

"Well, that's one way to put it," Gabrielle smiled.

David looked at her sharply for a moment, then his face softened again and he nodded.

"I'm sorry, Gabrielle," he said sincerely. "Ever since I got here, I've kind of just taken over, haven't I?" He shrugged. "I've been so cocky about everything that I brought back with me, including my 'foreknowledge', as you call it, and I've kind of overcompensated for our little issue a few months back." He took her hands in his and looked at her. "I'm just so afraid of losing you. I just stepped right into the center of everything and –" He shrugged and smiled. "Humility was never my strong point."

Gabrielle smiled. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

David chuckled. "All right. If this hair brained idea works, I promise to back off on the throttle a little, okay?"

She nodded. "Done."

"But," David held up a finger. "I reserve the right to jump in if I think you're in over your head?"

"As long as it goes both ways," Gabrielle countered. "And we can start right now."

"We can?" David asked.

"Yes," Gabrielle replied. "This whole idea of yours is rubbing me the wrong way somehow. Explain what you're hoping will happen?"

David did so with as much detail as he could provide. Gabrielle listened and asked many questions. When David finally fell silent, Gabrielle mused for a few moments.

"If Licno makes the boat too heavy on the aft, the wave might overwhelm the ship."

"But of theirs too much in the front, we could simply dive beneath the water?" David replied.

"Say this works," Gabrielle assumed. "And we start riding this wave towards the Nile. If we come over the top of that wave, with all that weight in the aft, could it flip us over backwards?"

David's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I hadn't even thought of that."

Gabrielle gave him a knowing look and then ran to explain the hazard to Licno. The Captain nodded understanding and looked over at David with a momentary reproachful glance. Then he issued some orders and went back to preparing the ship for the trial ahead.

The sun was beginning to slide towards the west when the call came from the lookout.

"Land ho!"

Everyone on the raised aft deck squinted into the haze and made out the slightly gray shore line miles ahead.

The ocean was calm and glassy, reflecting the bright sun with blinding silver light. The only sound was the constant breeze and the creaking of the ship as it moved.

David stared out at the distant shore and sighed. Then he looked back. The ocean was flat as glass as far as he could see.

Licno also surveyed the water behind them. David was expecting a scornful remark about the calm. Instead, the captain sighed.

"The closer we get to that shore, the more certain I am of your words," he muttered. "We should be bobbing like a cork on the surf as we approach. This calm is all wrong." He turned and barked. "What's the water depth?"

"Just over five fathoms sir," a crew man replied from the side of the ship.

"It should be at least seven," Licno muttered. He looked at David. "I hope this plan of your works, lad."

"You and me both," David replied.

For another three unnerving hours, the ocean stayed that way. The sun was setting deep orange, hanging just above the water. They could see the outline of the shore ahead clearly now. Tall palm trees and lush green vegetation covered the expulsion point of the Nile, all waving gently in the breeze, as if beckoning to them in welcome.

Gabrielle was hopeful. "We might get there before the wave hits."

David shook his head. "If we do, we're toast."

She looked up at him in surprise.

"If this tub is stopped and that wave hits, it'll mash us into chowder." David said grimly.

Gabrielle looked up at Licno. "Aim for the eastern side of the delta, Captain."

Slowly the boat adjusted its heading. That was when David noticed something that terrified him.

The sail was full of wind, the ship was level, the water smooth, but they were barely moving!

"Dead astern!" A panicking voice cried from the lookout atop the mast. "Look!"

They all ran to the stern and gazed out in wonder and horror. Across the entire horizon was a thin line of blue. As they watched it continued to grow, shimmering in the fading light of the sun. A wall of water was rushing after them.

"By the Gods," Gabrielle breathed.

David looked at the wave thundering towards them and felt the ship slowing even more as the undercurrent began to pull them back.

"Action stations!" Licno roared at the top of his lungs. "Batton her down lads!"

David leapt down to the deck and looked back up at his wife. "You understand what I was talking about earlier, the weaving part?"

Gabrielle nodded anxiously.

"Good," David said as he lashed himself to the deck. "Get to Licno and tie yourself down! She's all yours!"

David turned and faced the billowing sail.

"Must go faster," he was muttering as he struggled to calm his mind. "Must go faster." His eyes shut and he slowed his breathing down. He raised his arms and began twirling them slowly as if moving through molasses, his lips moving inaudibly. The wind, which had been gentle, suddenly began to pick up as he called on the energies of the universe.

The sail strained as a strong gust pushed against it with unnatural intensity. The ship began moving forward faster.

A gentle murmur began to sound in their ears increasing to a deafening roar as the water thundered inexorably toward them.

Gabrielle turned and looked at the sight. The wave was easily sixty feet high. It was a massive undulation without the typical crest of a normal wave as it breaks on the shore. This was a force of nature that would not be stopped at the shore.

Then, she felt the aft section of the ship rise as the foot of the monstrosity reached them. Cargo shifted beneath their feet and the bow rose completely from the water as the ship surged forward.

David blinked and grabbed a lifeline, looking up at the crystal blue oblivion just behind them. The ship plunged forward with reckless speed.

Gabrielle's eyes were wide in terror as she saw the water screaming at her, just beyond the railing. Then it was over it and creeping forward as the ship settled further and further within, aiming like a missile towards the rapidly approaching shore. Water inundated the aft section of the ship. It choked Gabrielle as she tried to breathe and the salt stung her eyes as she desperately tried to keep the shore in sight. Below and ahead of the torrent, David also watched with his eyes wide. He looked back and saw Gabrielle, clutching the wheel in her hands and fighting for air as the water practically covered the deck just behind her feet.

The land was approaching and David could see the miniscule shapes of people trying to flee the coming inundation. He looked back and shouted for Gabrielle, but the roar of the water drowned his voice. He let go of the lifeline with one hand and pointed to the left, indicating the direction he needed the ship to turn to avoid being smashed like insects on the shore

Gabrielle saw him gesticulating and suddenly she understood. She turned the wheel over to the starboard and felt the ship moving beneath her feet. David's hand moved until it was pointing straight up and Gabrielle turned the wheel back, holding the course. After a few moments, his arm pointed back to port and she turned the wheel accordingly.

The ship sped through the Nile delta and into the river proper, weaving back and forth as the wave spent its energy pushing further inland. The ship began to descend. The water on the stern receded and Gabrielle could see again. A quick glance to the left and right revealed that she was alone on the deck. There was no sign of Captain Licno, or any of the other three crewmen that had been tied to the railing beside her. She had enough sense to tie the wheel down so it wouldn't turn on its own when the bow of the ship slammed back down into the water.

It was as if something had pulled the ground from beneath their feet.

Gabrielle was hurled forward over the rail onto the deck below, while David went flying toward the bow. She saw him plow into the bow rail and then the hard wood of the deck rushed up to meet her and she knew no more.


	2. Onobis Illuminotis

**Onobis Illuminotis**

All was silent except for the gentle rustle of the breeze and the subtle creaking of the ship as it floated slowly down the river. The moon shone pale and bright, casting gray shadows about the wreckage on the deck of the ship. Night animals made their music and the tall grasses rustled like a thousand whispering voices contemplating the strange vessel before them.

The long shadow of a crocodile slid through the grasses and vanished beneath the silvery surface, hunting for food.

Night birds and bats chittered in the shadows, or fluttered to and fro above the water, seeking prey.

A single figure landed on the deck without a sound. Not even the wind seemed to notice it. It was the figure of a man, tall and thin, with a cadaverous pallor to his skin. His sharp nails bit into the hard wood of the deck as his red eyes surveyed the scene.

Just ahead and to his right he saw one figure, lying motionless, face down. By the heat of her body, it was obvious that this one was still alive. He paused, hovering over her and considered the elaborate tattoo of a dragon stretched across her back. The painted face seemed to stare back at him with menacing eyes.

The man licked his lips expectantly, but then had to force his desire to feed back down. He had his instructions and they did not include sating his thirst.

He looked forward and saw the mass of tumbled fabric and tangle of ropes that had been the main sail, draped over the bow like a funeral shroud. The thick main mast itself hung precariously over the smashed railing.

At the near edge of the mess, he spied a single bare foot protruding from beneath the canvas.

With less sound than a scuttling rat, he moved to the bow and lifted the torn sail out of his way. There, lying unconscious against the shattered railing was a man.

His eyes focused on the man's face for a moment, went wide in astonishment and then narrowed again in suspicion. A breath like the hiss of a viper escaped from between his pointed teeth.

_"Nickoli."_ The word floated on the wind.

A soft moan sounded behind him and his red eyes turned to see the female figure stirring.

Gabrielle pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked forward. She thought she caught a flicker of motion, as if something had just leapt over the side of the boat, but the haze in her mind made it impossible to know for certain. Her entire body was throbbing with the pain of her landing. Looking back towards the aft, she realized that she had been thrown nearly half way across the long axis of the ship. She winced as she forced her bruised body to move.

When she looked back up again, she saw David, lying on his side against the railing. The main mast had landed within a foot of his body.

"David?" she groaned. Her concern overcame her pain and she crawled over to him.

As she approached him, she saw, with relief that he was also beginning to move. His hand flopped forward as if searching for something and his head moved.

Gabrielle grasped his hand.

"David?" she asked.

David's eyes fluttered open. His head rose and he looked about in a daze.

"Licno!" he called groggily.

"Gone," Gabrielle said. "Along with the whole crew."

David cursed, pulling himself upright. He winced as he sat back against the railing.

Looking at the carnage about them, he managed a grim smile.

"That was one hell of a ride," he said thickly. Above him, the remains of the fore sail fluttered in the breeze, just enough to pull them slowly down the river. The fore mast groaned dangerously under the gentle pressure. "Better than Disney World"

"Can you walk?" Gabrielle asked earnestly. "Anything broken?"

David rolled over and tried to get his feet beneath him, groaning loudly as he forced himself to stand. Then he helped Gabrielle up.

They saw lush vegetation on either side of them. The boat seemed to be holding the center of the river. Occasionally something groaned beneath their feet as the ship scraped the bottom.

David looked at the mangled mast and sail beside him and shuddered.

"That was close," he commented. Then he looked back out at the landscape. "Where the hell are we?"

Gabrielle shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. We must have been out for hours?"

All about them was quiet country. No sign of the carnage that a tsunami would have caused, which meant that they had left the destruction far behind them.

"Well, that's something," David thought out loud.

The two of them stumbled aft and climbed up to the wheel.

"Do we keep going?" David asked her. "Or run her aground and wait till morning?"

Gabriele considered the vacant, unspoiled land around them. There were no signs of any habitation or people.

"If we run aground," she said musing. "We could be days away from the nearest settlement. I say we keep going."

David nodded. "Keep going, it is." He pulled the rope from the wheel and steered them more central in the river before tying it off again. Then he noticed the bruises appearing on Gabrielle's shoulders and legs.

"Damn, girl," he said. "You alright?"

Gabrielle inspected her injuries and nodded. "You?"

David moved his shoulders experimentally and winced when he rolled his left one. "Just about."

"Let me see," Gabrielle ordered. She helped him pull the shirt over his head and gasped in shock when she saw his back.

The color of his flesh was marred by a series of yellowish black bruises nearly as thick as her arm, running parallel across his shoulders and upper back. She also saw the swelling that indicated damage to his left shoulder.

"You really hit that rail hard," she said, gently touching the wound. He winced and pulled away instinctively at her touch. "I'm surprised you didn't go all the way through it?"

"That bad?" David asked.

Gabrielle only nodded. "Come over here and sit down," she instructed. He moved and seated himself on a small wooden cask letting his elbows rest on his knees.

Gabrielle gently probed the wound and felt the slight dislocation in his shoulder. She winced in sympathy.

"Well," she said lightly. "This might take a little work."

She moved to stand before him, her fingers slowly working the joint.

Then she looked down at him and smiled softly. "Serves you right, you know?"

"What?" David asked in surprise. "What do you mean by that?"

Gabrielle looked down at him, her fingers still gently working on the injured joint. She smiled again.

"I mean," she said absently. "That is was your crazy idea, after all?"

"Now just a second," David protested.

Gabrielle leaned over and kissed him suddenly. It was a deep, sensuous kiss filled with promise. She felt his whole body relax and then quickly snapped the joint back into place with an audible crack.

David flinched away from her kiss.  
"Wow!" he cried out in pain. He looked at Gabrielle in astonishment. "What did you go and do that for?"

"Think about how much it would have hurt if you had been thinking about it?" Gabrielle offered slyly.

David's mouth opened and closed several times and his gaze darkened.

"I'll never trust you again when you kiss me like that," he growled. "I owe you big for that one."

"Does the shoulder feel better?" Gabrielle asked innocently.

"Yeah," David said, moving his arm again. He smiled at her. "That isn't the part that's bugging me now, though?"

"One thing at a time, dear," Gabrielle smiled.

David's eyebrows rose in surprise as her seductive look remained on her face for a few more moments, and then she looked out past the front of the ship.

In the distance, they could see the dark outline of something large and triangular.

David's soft smile was replaced by a more excited look. "Giza," he breathed. "Damn. That wave really gave us a shove." He leaned against the wheel and stared out at the approaching pyramids in awe. Then he perked up suddenly.

"The river course is different!" he exclaimed.

"Different?" Gabrielle asked. "How?"

"Where I came from, the Nile didn't run right next to the plateau!" David pointed. "But for now, it does! Archeologists always suspected that the course of the river shifted at some point in time, they just never agreed on when that actually happened!"

A single pale hand brushed aside several blades of the tall reeds and fierce pale blue eyes stared out at the shrinking silhouette of the boat as it moved lazily down the river towards the sacred plateau.

The eyes were filled with a predatory hatred, mixed in measure with curiosity and balanced by dark wisdom.

She could still see the two figures on the aft deck as clearly as if they stood directly before her.

"How isthis possible?" her voice hissed musically.

She turned with an almost ethereal grace and faced her three companions.

She was tall and slender, with dark hair, which shone black in the moonlight. She wore a simple, pleated linen dress of local design and her hair was held back in a circlet of pale silver. Her delicate features would have been quite lovely if it were not for the marble white pallor of her flesh and the subtle protrusion of the fangs beneath her upper lip. The fangs lengthened and her eyes went from icy blue to fiery red as she breathed deeply.

"Seftus," she said in a quiet voice. "Answer me. How is this possible?"

The rail thin man who had boarded the ship earlier shrugged his bony shoulders.

"Lady Imani," he said as he inclined his head forward. "I know not how this has happened. I can only tell you what I beheld. It was the Lord Nickoli aboard that vessel, yet, it was not. He was no longer one of us. The other, I do not recall."

"I know the other," Imani hissed, looking at the second companion. She was a fledgling, almost mortal to behold. Her flesh had not achieved the marble hue and hardness. Her dark eyes were clear, bright, and hungry. She still wore the garb of the Amazon warrior that she had been in life.

Imani smiled at her. "She is Gabrielle. The same child that aided us a generation ago. Why has she also changed so little? How is that possible?"

"She is Queen Gabrielle?" the young Amazon asked. It was as if she finally believed it was possible.

"She should be dead," Imani's eyes turned back to the river. "Or, in the least, old and frail."

"I don't care!" The young Amazon protested. "I still want their blood!"

"Patience, Sindis," the third figure said, gently patting the young warrior's arm. He was a more rotund figure, clad in thick desert robes and wearing a fine blue silk turban. His black whiskers folded their way around his mouth.

Sindis wrested her arm away from the elder and stalked towards the river.

"Patience be damned," she cursed. "I want their blood now!"

Instantly, Imani fastened on the fledgling and forced her back against a nearby tree, her red eyes glowing like hot coals and she hissed like a rabid cat.

"You will do nothing!" she whispered. "That is my father on that boat. Our father creator. I will know how he has retuned to the land of the living before I set you loose upon him!"

"There is also another possibility we should entertain," The shorter blood drinker put in.

The other three turned to stare at him.

"This man may not be our Lord," he shrugged.

"Shut up Arijani!" Seftus shot back. "I know what I saw! It was the Lord Nickoli!"

Arijani merely shrugged. "I simply suggest that we consider this possibility, Seftus. No more or less."

"All of you be quiet!" Imani barked. She let the startled Sindis back down to the ground. "We will do nothing to them, for the present." She fixed Sindis with a deadly look. "We will watch and wait, and see what transpires."

Her eyes drifted to a nearby cluster of firelight. "In the mean time. We have other things to attend to." Her lips parted in a cold smile.

In one, all for of them swooped towards the tiny encampment. A few moments later, terrified cries rose from the place, but only for a brief time. Then the land fell once again into ominous silence.

Utanhk, High Priest of Osirus lay curled upon his sleeping pallet. The retching had finally ceased, but his body was still wracked with unbelievable pain. Through his glassy eyes, he saw one of the adjutants of the temple hovering at the doorway to his private chambers.

His brown eyes cleared slightly as he tried to mask his torment.

"Enter," he croaked.

The young man – a boy really – timidly stepped into the chamber.

"Forgive me, Master," he said quietly. "But you wished to be informed of anything strange?"

Utanhk forced himself to sit upright, and then got stiffly to his feet. The latest incantation had been a near disaster. As he shrugged his robe over his shoulders he looked back at the young man impatiently. "Well?"

The young boy blinked out of his momentary stupor. "Yes," he said nervously. "Strange rumors have begun to arrive about a tragedy on the coast. It is told that Alexandria has fallen into the sea?"

Utanhk scoffed aloud. "The rituals are powerful indeed," he said. "But they are not that powerful."

"Also," The boy continued after swallowing. "A ship is coming up the river, from the sea."

"You see?" Utanhk gestured with his hand. "How could a ship be coming from that part of the river if, as you say, the coast has been beset by some disaster?"

"The boat is of foreign design, Master," the young boy replied. "And was made to sail on the ocean, not the river? Somehow it made it through the delta?"

"That is impossible," Utanhk said, suppressing a nervous twitch in his belly.

"Come see for yourself, Master," the boy offered.

Utanhk paused in the midst of fastening the clasp of his ceremonial necklace. He fixed a hard gaze on the boy.

The boy swallowed and then gestured towards the outside.

"It approaches as we speak," he explained. "It is badly damaged."

The High Priest fastened the two golden cuffs about his wrists and a third about his left upper arm before turning and pushing past the boy. All his pain and weariness forgotten in this revelation.

He halted at on a balcony that showed the river below, stretching out like a silver line in the moonlight. Clearly, he could make out the shape of a large vessel coming towards the temple. He was no river man, but even his untrained eyes could make out the damage to the upper deck. He also knew, without experience, that a vessel that size could never navigate the Nile Delta without running aground. By all accounts, this ship should not be there.

"By the Gods," he whispered in surprise.

David gently turned the wheel of the ship, following a gentle bend in the river, and stared up in wonder at the face of the massive monument before him. The crouching figure of the Great Sphinx sat poised, as if it would leap out and swat them down at any moment.

It took a minute before he realized that he was staring at the face of Egypt's most well known monument, unmarred by the passage of time. The face was brightly and decoratively painted, and the nose was intact!

"I'll be damned," he leaned his chin on the wheel and a soft laugh escaped his lips. His eyes drank in the sight with the full realization that no one in his own time had ever beheld what he was observing. Just beyond the monument he could see a series of gently lit villas and small temples, a lot more than modern archeology had unearthed in his day. His reverie was interrupted by the sound of a voice shouting at him in a strange dialect.

He raised his head and peered into the gloom.

At the edge of the river, a single figure could be seen, waving his arms and pointing upstream.

David followed the man's gestures and saw, in the distance, the pale glowing of two torches.

His mouth dropped open when he realized that he was staring at the private boat ramp for the temple of Osirus, the heart of the Giza Necropolis. They were being invited to dock their ship before the eyes of the Sphinx itself!

"I guess this is where we tie up for the night?" David called down to Gabrielle. "What do you think?"

Gabrielle, standing at the lower deck rail, looked out over a pile of tangled timber and canvas and saw the intended dock. Already, several men were moving into position to catch the ropes they assumed would be thrown to them.

"Uh, sweetheart?" David called down. "Do you know how to dock a boat?"

Gabrielle looked up at him in surprise and shook her head.

David smiled with false bravado. "Great! Neither do I!"

One of the men on the dock was waving wildly at them now, his arms moving in and up and down motion.

Gabrielle understood it first and scrambled to drop the tattered foresail. She stumbled and fell, looking up at her objective darkly.

From her bag, she drew out something that flashed silver in the moonlight, and with a grunt, she sent the object flying.

A sound like a saw blade echoed across the deck as David watched the object slice the main rope neatly. The object imbedded itself in the tough wood of the remaining mast. Canvas trailers fell like streamers and the cross brace hit the deck with a crash.

Gabrielle pulled herself over the wreckage to the forward part of the deck, he eyes darting to and fro amidst the wreckage. The men below were all gesticulating wildly now

Gabrielle found what she was looking for and hurled a long coil of rope to the waiting men. Several of them caught it easily and wrapped it expertly about a thick stone piling protruding from the corner of the dock.

"Throw the aft line!" Gabrielle shouted.

David abandoned the wheel and picked up another coil of rope. He tossed it down towards the second group of men. They also wrapped the rope once about another piling and began hauling back on it, pulling the massive ship closer to the dock. The hull hit with a sickening crunch and a shudder.

Several men looked up at David reproachfully. Not understanding, David only shrugged and shook his head.

The waiting gangplank proved to be too short to be practical. Fortunately, a large mass of rope and netting hung over the side. That served well enough as a way to disembark.

Gabrielle retrieved her thrown object and clambered back over the wreckage towards David as he descended the stairs toward her.

David saw the object and smiled.

"I was wondering what ever happened with that?" he asked.

Gabrielle paused and looked down at the chakram in her hand – her chakram now. She smiled with a touch of regret.

"How come you haven't used it before now?" David asked.

Gabrielle only shrugged and looked down over the side.

David followed her gaze and saw a tall, bald man coming down the gentle slope of the ramp. He was dressed in the finery that identified him as a priest. A rather powerful one if the energy his aura gave off was any indication.

David pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Looks like the boss has come down to greet us?" he commented. "Should we get our stuff and go down to join him?"

"Not many other choices are there?" Gabrielle replied.

David held up one hand, begging patience, and then he and Gabrielle vanished. They returned a few minutes later with their packs and climbed carefully down to the dock.

The priest stared at them for several moments, as if sizing them up. Then he fixed his dark eyes on David. He touched his hands to the opposite shoulders and bowed.

"Ka Na Te Osirus," he greeted as he gave a slight bow.

David set his bag down and pressed his hands together as if in prayer and also bowed.

"Onobis Illuminotis," he said calmly.

Gabrielle looked at David in surprise.

"What did you just say?" she asked.

The Egyptian priest smiled. "He explained that he is a Servant of the Light," he said in flawless Greek. "Welcome to the Temple of Osirus. I am Utanhk." He bowed again.

"You speak Greek?" David asked, smiling.

"One of the few benefits that our current Roman guests have brought with them," Utanhk replied easily. He surveyed the ship for a moment and shook his head.

"It looks as though you have had a dangerous time." He stepped to one side and gestured amicably. "If you would follow me? I will arrange some refreshment for you?"

"I thank you," David nodded, speaking with a formality that she had never heard him use before. "If I may, Honored Host, What shall become of the ship and its contents?"

Utanhk looked momentarily puzzled. "The ship is not yours?"

David shook his head. "The captain and crew were – lost." He looked about. "If you please, I would much rather discuss the particulars in private?"

Utanhk nodded. "As would I. At present, the ship will remain here. Since you are the only two aboard her, then the vessel is yours, and all its contents."

David's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Very well," he nodded.

The two of them followed their host up the long ramp and into the temple complex proper. They passed through a thick sandstone arch into the great courtyard where the Sphinx sat.

David gazed up at it in wonder. In spite of himself, he slowed to a halt.

Gabrielle and then Utanhk both stopped and turned back to look at him.

Utanhk smiled with pride. "I take it you have never seen our mighty guardian before?"

David only shook his head.

"It's magnificent." He breathed.

"The new rulers of our land only finished the restoration of our temple this past year." Utanhk said proudly. "Before then, this entire place was buried beneath the sands."

David tore his gaze away from the colossus and looked about. To their left he could see a series of apartments, constructed and painted in Egyptian fashion, but unmistakably Roman in design. To his right and over the shoulder of the Sphinx, he saw the smooth sides of the rising pyramids, still glowing faintly with the heat of the fallen sun. They shone like dull embers in the night.

Utanhk gestured again. "This way, please?"

David looked at his host and smiled apologetically. Then he nodded his head once to the Sphinx and followed.

The gesture was not lost upon the High Priest. His eyebrows rose ever so slightly before he turned and resumed leading them to the apartments.

Utanhk led them to a large, lavishly appointed suite of rooms at the far end of the building, very near the temple itself.

"I trust you shall be comfortable here?" Utanhk said cordially. "I shall send food and drink to you. In the mean time, enjoy yourselves. We shall speak at length when you are refreshed."

David nodded his head again. "My Lord," he said formally. "I am hesitant to impose upon your hospitality further, however. My wife and I have lost all our belongings, except what you see here with us. Would it be possible to find clean garments for us?"

Utanhk smiled warmly. "I shall attend to it, honored guest. Clothing for your companion, and the proper vestments for a man of your – "He paused as if searching for the correct word. "Station." He finished. He backed out of the room and gently closed the door after him.

Once the Priest had departed, both of them let out a long breath of relief.

David stepped over to a large comfortable chair and fell into it heavily. "He is definitely one of the big boys," he said. "Right up there with Shilah."

"What do you mean?" Gabrielle asked, inspecting the rooms.

"He's the genuine article," David replied. "Old School High Priest, full of power. I wouldn't want to go up against him in a duel. He makes Alti look like Pee Wee Herman."

Gabrielle stopped in her inspection and smiled when she looked at him.

"Who?" She never understood his references from his time.

David smiled and shook his head. "Let me just say that he's more powerful than you, me, and our late lamented friend, put together."

"Is that why he was so formal with you?" Gabrielle asked. "And you? I've never heard you talk like that before? You sounded almost respectable?"

David mock laughed at her and put his hand to his head, thinking. "What do you want to do about the ship?"

Gabrielle shrugged. "Well. Technically, I guess it does belong to us, since we were the only ones to survive?" She shrugged. "I don't know. Do we have to figure it out tonight?"

Her voice sounded strangely distant.

Frowning, David stood and walked over to her. "I suppose not, I just thought –" He stopped when he saw what had caught Gabrielle's attention. A large earthen stone bath sat before them, steaming expectantly.

"Right," David nodded in understanding. "Relax now, think later."

Gabrielle stripped off her clothes and settled into the steaming water, sighing contentedly.

David shook his head. "Well, let the Honeymoon begin."

"And about time, too," Gabrielle replied. "You coming in?"

David looked down at the water. The bath was more than large enough to accommodate them at the same time. He shrugged.

"Maybe later," he said. "There are a few other things I want to mull over first."

Gabrielle looked up at him, mildly concerned. "Like what?"

David smiled reassuringly. "This place, for one." He pointed out the nearby archway that led to the balcony running the length of the suite.

"Gabrielle," David said excitedly. "I'm standing in a place that people from my time will never know about! I'm living my ancient history in one of the places I've always dreamed about! It's a bit overwhelming. I just want to try and take it all in without being a giddy idiot."

He sighed. "And I just want a few minutes to just "be", you know?"

Gabrielle smiled. "I think I understand." Then she splashed some of the water playfully in his direction. "Just don't take too long?"

David nodded and withdrew.

From the far side of the river, two figures stood concealed within the tall reeds, looking out at the complex intently.

Sindis's eyes focused in on the balcony where her prey had just emerged. She watched him lean against the rail, his gaze turning this way and that, as if drinking in the scenery. His face was calm, set in an expression of contemplative rapture.

A low, animalistic growl escaped her lips.

Beside her, Imani also watched, but with an expression of quiet awe. At the sound of her fledgling, she snapped her gaze upon Sindis.

"Patience," she whispered.

Sindis's fingers twitched expectantly. "I want his blood."

"If he is the Lord Nickoli," Imani said with menacing calm. "Then you will not have him and that is final!"

Sindis looked at her creator angrily. "Why did you grant me this, if you intended to keep me from the vengeance you promised?"

"I did not know whom you sought vengeance against, child," Imani replied. She fixed her gaze upon the man again and a smile began to tug at her delicate mouth. This man's every mannerism was the same. The way he moved. The way he stood. The formality of his exchange with the priest earlier. Even the thoughtful way he seemed to study his surroundings. They all spoke of Nickoli!

"Your desire has blinded you," Sindis said angrily.

"And your thirst for revenge has likewise blinded you!" Imani replied.

Sindis looked at Imani for a long moment and then turned away.

"Where are you going?" Imani asked tersely.

Sindis stopped and flexed her fingers again. "I'm thirsty." She vanished into the gloom.

Imani smiled coldly. Somewhere in the depths of her frozen heart, she felt a twinge of pity for the hapless victim that would cross the young Amazon's path tonight. The spark of compassion vanished almost before she acknowledged it.

"When the time is right," she said to the open air. "You will be perfect."

She watched the man for a few minutes more and then went to sequester herself against the coming day.

David opened his knapsack and rummaged through it, lifting out two objects. One of them was a long flat velvet covered box. The fabric was crushed and matted from being buried beneath his other gear. The second was a small yellow pulp paper book.

He set the two objects down on a small gaming table and then slipped out of his clothing.

Gabrielle looked up at him expectantly when he entered.

David slid into the tub across from his wife and let the heat of the water burn out the sorenessof his bruised back. He winced slightly at the contact and then dipped beneath the water before leaning back against the edge, his arms stretched out along the rim.

Gabrielle slipped over rand settled down on his lap, leaning back against his chest, her head resting comfortably on his uninjured shoulder. She held his hand when he reached down to hold her and sighed.

They sat there for a long time, just being together, relishing the simple contact.

"Well," David said at last. "We made it?"

Gabrielle smiled and nodded. "Yes we did."

"So?" David asked, his smile spreading across his face. "What's next?"

Gabrielle looked back at him, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Hey," David said gently. "You won the poker game, remember?"

Gabrielle smiled. "Ah, that's right. I did, didn't I?" She considered for a moment and then moved up to kiss him.

David stopped her just before their lips met.

"Touch my shoulder," he warned her. ""And I'll break your arm."

Gabrielle laughed softly and melted into his kiss.


	3. Shadows of Memory

**Shadows of Memory**

A soft knock upon the door roused David from a contented sleep. He gently extricated himself from Gabrielle and wrapped one of the fine linen sheets about his waist.

When he answered the door, three servants stood, waiting patiently.

One of them bore a tray laden with food, while the second carried another tray upon which rested two golden cups and a flagon of drink. The third bore a large bundle of pale white fabric.

David pressed a finger to his lips, requesting that they remain as silent as possible and he ushered them inside.

The food was set on the table resting out on the balcony along with the cups and flagon of drink. Then the two quickly went and changed over the bath water while the third of them stepped over and draped two sets of garments over a small couch.

She indicated the clothing expectantly. David gave a friendly nod of approval and the woman curtsied quickly and withdrew.

The other two soon followed, once their preparations in the bath chamber were completed. They also curtsied and quietly excused themselves.

David went out to the balcony, still wrapped in only the bed sheet. He seated himself on at the table and looked over the food curiously.

Several thing brown cakes and an assortment of fruits and dates were laid out decoratively on the large platter. He filled his cup from the flagon and was surprised to discover it was another blend of squeezed citrus juices. The taste was unique. Fragrant and slightly sweet. He relished it for a moment and tried, without success to identify the ingredients.

The sun was already growing hot when Gabrielle emerged from the suite, also wrapped in a sheet. She smiled when she found David sipping from the cup and reading the small book with an air of absolute contentment.

"I think this kind of life suits you," she said as she slid into the chair opposite him and filled her own cup.

David closed the book and smiled.

"Find me a box of stogies, and I'll be set," he said, reaching for another date. He flexed his shoulder experimentally and winced at the soreness.

"How is it?" Gabriele asked when she saw his pained expression.

"Better than it was," David replied. "I'll be sore for a few days at least, though. How about you?"

"Much better," She said. "But I didn't get half the punishment you did."

David shrugged and reached for the flagon.

"So," she asked casually. "What do you think?"

"About what?"

Gabrielle gestured out towards the Sphinx and the nearby pyramids.

"Oh," David nodded. A wistful smile crept across his face. "I could get used to this land, very, very quickly."

He gestured about them. "Even after two thousand years, when most of this is in ruins, I was still enchanted by this place. You might even say that I was drawn here against my will. The ancient knowledge and energies of these places will be just as palpable in two millennia, as they are right now. I have to watch myself, otherwise they could make me pretty giddy."

"You can actually feel it?" Gabrielle asked in surprise.

"More here, than in any place we've seen since I got back to you." David admitted. "It isn't surprising, though. This kingdom has already been around for more than three thousand years. It's only natural that the energies would be stronger here."

"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to experience the world the way you do,' Gabrielle said thoughtfully. "It must be amazing to see the energies around things."

"Sometimes," David nodded. "Other times, in places where horrible things happened, it can be pretty nasty. There are places in Germany that I will never go to again. Too many people butchered in one place can create a vortex that makes me nauseous. It's like being surrounded by thousands of ghosts, all screaming in agony."

Gabrielle sat thoughtfully for a moment. Then she leaned forward. "Do you remember the first time you felt it?"

David nodded. "Like it was yesterday."

"Tell me about it," Gabrielle pressed. "What was it like?"

David set his cup down and held his hands apart, facing each other.

"I was twelve." He began. "My parents took us on a trip along the east coast. One of our stops was at Gettysburg. It was the sight of one of the bigger battles in the American Civil War."

He leaned forward, his eyes alight with memory.

"We were standing at one of the lines, where the troops had assembled before they charged across the field. Now, this battle was one of the bloodiest of the entire war. Tens of thousands died in a matter of a few hours!"

Gabrielle suppressed a shudder.

"Anyway," David continued. "We were all standing there, listening to the tour guide rattle off the numbers and troop placements and all that nonsense. Then everything began to change. I could hear the tour guide's voice, but it seemed to fade away as if he were walking away from us, but he never moved.

I heard a low whistling sound and then an explosion as if it had gone off just over the hill by where we were all standing. Then I heard the voices!"

"Voices?" Gabrielle asked, suppressing another shiver in spite of the warm air. "What were they saying?"

David sat back, his expression grim and sobering. "It was the sound of thousands of souls, crying out in pain. I crept up the hill and looked out at the field. All I could see where the ghostly shapes of bodies lying across the field, so close that many of them were overlapping where they had fallen. I smelled the scorched flesh and earth. I saw the shocked, dying men stumbling among the others before they fell. It was as if a black and white image had superimposed itself over the real world and I saw everything as it was and is at the same moment." He sighed. "I've seen that kind of horror three times in my life. Believe me, that's three times too many."

Gabrielle shivered again at the possibility. "You were only twelve?" she said sympathetically. "What did your parents do?"

David smiled. "They couldn't understand why I was so upset, so they did what any decent parents would do. They got me out of there."

Gabrielle smiled.

She was about to say something else when there was a timid knock on the door.

"Come in!" David called automatically.

A young boy in tan robes opened the door and stepped in nervously.

"Good morrow, Honored Guests." He greeted them. "I have been sent by Master Utanhk. He requests that you join him at the temple, if you are rested?"

David looked at Gabrielle questioningly. Gabrielle shrugged.

"If you would give us a few minutes to dress, then we will accompany you."

"As you wish," the boy replied. He stepped back out the door, closing it behind him.

David shrugged. "Well, our host awaits?"

When they emerged from the room a few minutes later, Gabrielle was dressed in a white linen dress of Egyptian fashion. It was a simple garment, and yet elegant. Loose fitting and comfortable in spite of the heat.

David's wardrobe was much plainer. A simple series of loose fitting traveler's robes made for the desert. About his neck and on his fingers, he wore the contents of his thin covered box. A five pointed pentagram of silver hung about his neck, and silver rings adorned six of his eight fingers. Each of them were of slightly different design while at the same time complimentary, showing his journey down the path that Shilah had taken him before he came to this era. The combination of simple adornment and robes made him look like a wandering priest.

His long brown hair was tied back neatly in a tail that fell over the cowl hanging at the back of his neck.

He nodded to the boy cordially and gestured for him to lead the way.

Gabrielle walked next to him, watching the change in David's demeanor with great interest. He strode down the hall with long, slow strides, his back straight, hands tented within the oversized sleeves of the robes. Gabrielle secretly wondered what other facets of his personality had yet to emerge in their life together. She was used to the arrogant, sometimes cocky, over confident David. She had even seen the cold and brutally calculating side of him. This change was something entirely new to her, and a part of her did not like it. He seemed colder, more detached from the world at large. Even more detached from her. She forced that bit of uneasiness down.

"Where does this come from?" she thought to herself.

David looked at her and smiled slightly. "Am I freaking you out?" he asked sincerely.

"Frankly, yes," Gabrielle confessed. "I don't like this side of you."

David shrugged slightly. "This is the frame of mind I get into when I'm about to do ritual. Even a cocky bastard like me needs to show some reverence?"

At that familiar cadence and wording, Gabrielle relaxed and smiled. No matter what guise he wore for this meeting, he was still her David, and that was what really mattered.

Their young guide led them through the complex to the entrance arch of a massive courtyard. Beyond that, they could see a second gate and still another inner court, followed by the dark opening of the temple proper.

"It's a site for a Hepshet festival," David whispered in awe. When he saw Gabrielle frown, David leaned closer.

"It was an annual festival of renewal, preformed each year to ensure the continued prosperity of the land. Amazing."

The courtyards were lined in lush trees and shrubs, quite a difference from the barren wastes that he and his fellow undergraduate students would unearth in the future. The walls were brightly painted and richly decorated in hieroglyphic images.

Several other lesser priests bustled about the complex, tending to various duties. Occasionally, one of them would pause to contemplate the two strangers and then turn his gaze back to his appointed task. An air of eternal watchfulness permeated every stone.

David blinked as he realized that the glowing sensation he perceived was more than just the reflection of the sun on the brightly painted stone. It was an afterglow of energy.

"Someone's been working some serious magic recently," he whispered. "I can see it soaking into every crevice of the place."

"Is that good or bad?" Gabrielle asked.

David only shook his head. "I don't know."

They passed into the temple building itself and they all felt the air cool dramatically as they passed the threshold.

Gabrielle shivered at the sudden change and flexed her shoulders automatically.

Torches burned in recesses along the deeper walls, filling the interior with deep orange illumination. Thousands of painted panoramic scenes covered the walls all about them. The pillars were washed white and augmented in reds and golds. The floor beneath their feet was polished to a smooth, dustless shine.

The aura of energies surrounding this place threatened in that moment to overwhelm David. He paused in mid step and took a deep breath, shielding himself from the sudden amalgamation of energies. Their guide paused and looked back at him questioningly.

"Are you not well, Master?" he asked.

David held up a hand. "I'm fine, good sir," he replied after a few breaths. "Just the change in temperature. Please, lead on."

They reached the opposite end of the large chamber and paused before a pair of ornate double doors, guilded in precious metals.

The boy pulled one of the doors open and gestured for David to enter. Then he barred the way as Gabrielle moved to follow.

"Forgive me, Mistress," he apologized. "Our faith decrees that no woman may enter the inner shrine to Osirus. You must wait here."

David paused within the doorway and turned back. He looked at Gabrielle and subtly shook his head when he saw her ready to argue the point.

"Then," David said amicably. "If you would be so kind as to invite the Lord Utanhk to join us in the outer chamber?"

This request seemed to startle the young boy. He stepped aside as David backed out of the room, bowing his head once before he passed the threshold.

He turned and faced the boy, his expression calm and neutral.

"I keep no secrets from my wife, nor she from me. Any words spoken between your Master and I are as much for her ears as mine."

The boy hesitated for only a moment before bowing respectfully and turning to disappear down a side corridor.

"Sorry about that," David apologized. "I was forgetting. The religions of Egypt were either Patriarchal or Matriarchal. They were rarely mixed. I should have seen that one coming."

Gabrielle shrugged indifferently. The two of them began strolling casually about the chamber, studying the hieroglyphics covering the walls. They were pausing before a large detailed image of Osirus seated upon his throne in the Hall of Judgment when a gentle voice greeted them.

"I bid you good morning," Utanhk said as he stepped into view. He strode to them and smiled warmly. "I trust that your accommodations met with approval?"

"Very much," David replied, snapping into that formal air that set Gabrielle's teeth on edge. He also raised his arms slightly, indicating the gift of clothes. "I am in your debt."

"I am told that you would have us confer in the presence of your companion," Utanhk said cordially. There was no hint of affront in the statement.

"My wife," David corrected gently.

"Indeed?" Utanhk's eyebrows rose in mild surprise. David merely nodded and smiled.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Utanhk gestured towards a side passage.

"Our laws forbid women within the inner sanctum of our God. Shall we have our talk on the veranda, then?"

Again, David nodded and the trio moved through another passage into a lavish interior garden of thick green plants and bright flowers.

Several small tables rested in the corners of the room, each with two chairs beside them.

Their host took one and set it before a table, gesturing for Gabrielle to sit.

"Some of our customs, doubtless, seem strange to you," he offered. He seated himself and looked at the two of them. "For instance, a priest of Osirus is forbidden to take a wife. Not one." He looked at David. "How many wives does your God allow?"

David smiled. "My Goddess allows for only one," he answered evenly. "And only after a series of rather interesting prerequisites." He smiled.

Gabrielle also smiled as she understood that he was referring to the adventure that had brought them together.

Utanhk held a hand up to Gabrielle. "Again, through ignorance, I have created offense. Forgive me?"

"Oh," Gabrielle replied quickly. "No offense taken."

"Any who seek knowledge cannot be called ignorant, Master," David offered. "They are considered wise."

Utanhk smiled gratefully. "I thank you for your patience, friend."

Utanhk called for food and drink, and the trio exchanged a few more pleasantries before the High Priest moved to the matter at hand.

"Word has begun to arrive from the outlying districts," He said as he refilled Gabrielle's cup. "Something disastrous has struck our northern region."

"We saw it," David said gently. "I fear that most of the city of Alexandria now lies at the bottom of the sea."

"Then the library? The Lighthouse? Palaces?" Utanhk asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.

David merely shook his head.

"The wave created by the disaster washed our ship over the delta and into the river," Gabrielle offered.

"Which is how we came to be in your care," David finished.

David was struck at the lack of astonishment in the priests eyes. He leaned forward slightly.

"Forgive me," he asked. "But you knew of this before we arrived?"

Utanhk looked up at him in shock and then nodded. "I fear that I may have caused the disaster."

"How?" Gabrielle asked in surprise.

David looked knowingly at Utanhk.

"I can still see the energies surrounding this place," he admitted, much to the High Priests surprise. "You were performing a powerful ritual in the past few days, were you not?"

Utanhk set his cup down and nodded. "We were."

David leaned back and smiled grimly. "Was it the Ritual of Ka-Ma'at?"

Utanhk shot to his feet in astonishment.

"What do you know of the Ritual?" he demanded.

David held up his hands in supplication. "Precious little, Master. I only ask because I have certain concerns."

Gabrielle could feel David tensing beneath the robes.

"On our voyage, I had a vision of Alexandria falling into the sea, and I felt the presence of powerful magic at the time it happened. The rest is purely speculative."

David could see the energy pouring off the High Priest and also felt him gazing into his soul. He did not resist, but allowed Utanhk to truly see him.

Utanhk's eyes went wide in realization as he beheld David. The aura of energy shining from him.

"Onobis Illuminotis?" Utanhk asked.

David nodded. "As you now perceive, I see?"

"Indeed," Utanhk settled back into his seat. "Yet I also perceive an underlying darkness?"

David nodded. "Though I serve the light, the majority of my energy is of a darker nature. Why that is, I cannot say?"

Gabrielle looked at David in mild surprise. This was a subject that they had never discussed, though it made sense to her in the instant that he said it. That subtle aura that she had always felt when she was near him, warm and soft, but somehow darker. How shadows would seem to follow him in the night, or wrap closer to him as he sat beside their campfires. How his religion worshiped the night and the moon over the daylight and the sun. How he could descend in an instant into that dark rage that sometimes frightened her, and then return again in a moment. Everything they had endured together in their travels took on a new level of clarity.

His religion taught respect for life, but trained him in the arts of death as a means to defend himself.

Utanhk's eyes narrowed. "What laws does your order follow?"

"Simply," David said. "Do as you will, but harm none."

"It seems somewhat vague to me," Utanhk pressed.

"It allows the followers of my order to be receptive to many points of view." David folded his hands in the sleeves of his robes again and smiled. "It also allows us to maintain an open mind when dealing with our counterparts from distant lands and cultures; hence you need not worry about offending us accidentally? You understand?"

"I begin to," Utanhk replied, relaxing again.

He took a drink from his cup and sighed. "Your suspicions are quite correct, my friend. I and my Acolytes attempted to perform the Ritual three days ago, to our shame."

"What went wrong?" David asked.

"Of that, I am forbidden to speak," Utanhk said evenly. His eyes flicked uneasily in Gabrielle's direction.

David nodded. "I understand." He decided that a change in topic would be for the best.

"There is another matter," he offered. "That of the boat tied at your dock?"

Utanhk relaxed completely and smiled, nodding in appreciation.

"Yes," he said. "Of that, we can speak openly. I had a scribe and several acolytes do a complete inventory of the contents of your ship last night. I trust you are not offended?"

David shook his head.

"It appears that the ship carried various cargos. Casks of wine and bolts of cloth from numerous places?"

David looked at Gabrielle, who nodded.

"Take it," He offered. "As payment for your hospitality. I only ask that you grant us two bolts of cloth and a single cask of wine?"

"Of course," Utanhk smiled in amazement. The generosity of his guests was astonishing.

David nodded. "As well, the ship is yours to do with as you wish. I know that workable wood is difficult to acquire, and the timbers of the ship would serve you well."

"You are indeed generous, Honored Guest," Utanhk smiled. "But in this, I cannot accept. I shall order that the ship be refitted to traverse the river, that it may carry you where you wish. Those materials removed from the ship I shall take gladly. But no more."

David stretched out his hands and nodded in acquiescence.

"It shall be done." Utanhk also rose and gave him a courteous bow. Then, much to Gabrielle's astonishment, he repeated the gesture towards her. She acknowledged it graciously and the trio left the veranda and headed back towards the open courtyard.

They took their leave of Utanhk and strolled easily across the courtyard. Once they were out of earshot of the High Priest, Gabrielle sighed.

"I don't know how much more of this 'courtesy' I can take."

"I know," David replied, smiling. "It's so not like me, but?" He shrugged. "Better safe than sorry." Then he leaned in closer. "He wants to discuss the Ritual, though," he added.

"He seemed upset when you mentioned it?" Gabriele replied.

David shrugged. "I think it was because I mentioned it while you were there?"

Gabrielle looked up at him in surprise.

"That whole 'No Girls Allowed' thing," he finished quickly. "Sorry."

"Oh, no problem," Gabrielle shot back sarcastically.

"I think he needs a way to speak of it with an 'outsider' that will allow him to, I don't know, save face?" David thought out loud. Then that mischievous smile began to creep across his face again. "And I think I know a way to do it."

Gabrielle looked at him skeptically. "You've got that look again."

Instantly, David's smile vanished and he looked at her innocently.

"What look?"

A soft groan escaped Gabrielle's lips. "That's what I was afraid of."

She looked up at him and smiled. "And where did you pick up this little idea?"

David wrapped an arm about her shoulder.

"I'll tell you about it over lunch," he offered. "After we've looked around the place a bit. What do you say?"

They spent the rest of the day exploring the area surrounding the temple and even ventured to the pyramids. The entire time, Gabrielle watched David's face with amusement.

His expression continuously alternated somewhere between awe, joy, and wonder.

After a while, it also became clear that David was looking for something in particular. As they moved around the Pyramid of Cheops, his eyes began following the intricate lines in the smooth stone.

Finally, he paused at the corner of the pyramid and looked back out over the Sphinx to their quarters.

His fingers traced a line from the balcony, across the shoulders of the Sphinx and then he turned and ran his hand back out and smiled knowingly.

"What are you doing?" Gabrielle asked.

"Marking the dig sites I remember," David explained. "I was positioned here when we conducted the initial survey. I want to get an idea of what we missed."

Gabrielle looked up at the falling sun and sighed. Next to the massive monument of stone, the heat was intense. She squinted and wiped some perspiration from her brow.

"How can you bear this heat?" she asked.

David smiled. "What heat?" Then he is hand dropped and he smiled.

"Right there, about nine feet beneath the water," he grinned.

"What?" Gabrielle burst out.

"The entrance to the Tomb of Osirus," David replied quietly. "No one is supposed to know about it."

Gabrielle looked at him and then at the edge of the river. "But you do because your expedition found it?"

"Not mine," David replied. "Another geologist, looking to prove that the river had indeed run this way in the past, stumbled across the entrance by accident. He told old Arlan about it, and the Professor had me and two other guys begin the job of excavating the entrance."

He gestured towards their lodging. "Come on. I'll explain as we go."

"Go where?" Gabrielle asked.

"I thought you didn't like the heat?" David asked, smiling.

Without thinking, she slapped his back. He gasped in pain as she hit the mass of bruises on his back.

"Oh my!" Gabrielle put her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry! I forgot about your back!"

"Sure, babe," David winced as he straightened. "No problem." He fixed her with a dark stare. "You're not sunburned yet, are you?"

"Hey!" Gabrielle countered. "Be nice!"

It was past sundown as they trudged across the sands towards the temple. The stars were shining in the heavens and the moon glistened pale above them, bathing the land in silvery light.

The last red glimmer of the setting sun vanished beneath the western horizon and the temperature dropped sharply.

The two of them were speaking casually as they traveled when suddenly, a noise caught their attention.

They turned and climbed a short dune. As they reached the top, the desert stretched out before them, silver and shadow stretching out into the distance. It was not the view that caused them to stop.

A short way down the opposite side of the dune a figure could be seen crouching on the ground. The sound of soft sucking reached their ears.

They stared in horror when they realized they were looking at a figure, crouching over another body. The latter lying limp in the formers arms.

"Hey!" Gabrielle cried out in rage. She ran down the dune towards the figures.

Startled, the figure jumped to its feet and bolted towards the deeper desert.

David followed Gabrielle and caught up to her as she knelt over the stricken body. It was a young man, lean and short, with dark eyes that stared up towards the moon, lifeless.

"What the hell was that?" David asked, looking down at the corpse. Then he looked sternly at Gabrielle. "And you said my stunt on the boat was reckless?"

Gabrielle was breathing hard, her eyes filled with predatory light.

"I think I recognized him," she said angrily.

"You recognized him?" David replied. "From a hundred yards out, in the dark? Yeah, right!"

Gabrielle fixed him with an angry glance. "His name is Arijani," she hissed. "He was one of the creatures that Xena and I faced a while back!"

Her gaze shifted back to the moonlit sands as she searched in vain for the fleeing figure.

David looked closely at Gabrielle. "Would I be correct in assuming that this little tirade is because this particular situation is more personal than most?"

Gabrielle looked up at him angrily. Then her expression changed for a moment as if she truly were recognizing something for the first time.

David arched an inquisitive eyebrow. "Well?"

… _Gabrielle walked next to Nickoli for a few minutes, waiting for him to begin. She looked up at him expectantly and studied the line of his jaw, the details of his cheek bones, the perfectly trimmed whiskers of the goatee framing his mouth, and the intense, unwavering gaze of his eyes as he walked. He was a handsome man, or had been when he was alive. His thick dark hair flowed like waves down past his shoulders, and she felt herself gravitating to him, even without his piercing gaze. She forced herself to resume breathing, not even realizing that she had stopped._

"_What did you want to ask me?" she finally asked when she could stand the silence no longer._

"_Wrong question," Nickoli replied in a soft baritone. "The correct question is: What do you wish to ask me?" His eyes turned to her and she immediately felt that irresistible pull. She tore her gaze away from the statuesque way he walked, with his hands clasped comfortably at the small of his back, like a nobleman, strolling the halls of his castle, not a wandering rogue in the wilderness._

_Nickoli smiled and fixed his eyes back on the path ahead._

"_You have an inquisitive air about you, Gabrielle," he said._

_Gabrielle tried to ignore the shiver that shot up her spine when he said her name in that smooth voice._

"_Call it curiosity, naiveté, desire, or simply a thirst for knowledge," Nickoli shrugged. "It all comes to the same thing. You wish to know and by knowing, to understand."_

"_Understand what?" Gabriele asked, wrestling with the desire to look in his direction again._

"_Everything," Nickoli nodded. "What makes the sun rise in the morning and set at night, why the sky is blue, what the stars are, how birds fly, How some thing like me can be both alive and dead?" he raised an eyebrow and looked sidelong at her._

"_Okay," Gabrielle nodded. "Then explain it. How can you be both alive and dead?"_

"_I don't know," Nickoli responded easily. He smiled._

_Gabrielle looked up at him with an angry expression. It faded to something closer to longing as soon as she looked at him._

"_Okay," she stammered, once again ripping her gaze from him. "Then tell me why, when I look at you, I feel," her hands rolled in front of her as she searched for the right word._

"_Desire?" Nickoli offered. "Lust? Perhaps a bit randy?" His smile became more mischievous._

"_Yes," Gabrielle finally admitted. "Except for that first time I saw you."_

"_Death itself has a certain allure," Nickoli said. "Anything that is unknown will tempt. If it is known, then the lack of fear of it will also make it tempting, because you realize in fact, not faith, that there is the potential for something else, beyond this life. It would follow that something representing that would also be alluring in its own way, even desirable."_

"_That first time you saw me," Nickoli said. "I wanted you terrified. So you were terrified. Now?" he shrugged. "I don't want anything from I you in particular, except that Xena honor our arrangement."_

"_Xena has changed a lot," Gabrielle said evenly. "She won't simply take a life in cold blood. Not anymore."_

"_Perhaps," Nickoli agreed. "And perhaps not. We shall see."_

"_I've died before," Gabrielle said suddenly. "More than once. I don't have any desire to do it again."_

"_Then," Nickoli pursed his lips. "I would have to say, in your case, that it is not the knowledge of what is that drives you. It is the curiosity of what could be."_

_They locked eyes suddenly, and Gabrielle felt the beating of her heart hammering against the inside of her chest. She was suddenly lost in his gaze. Those fierce green eyes held hers and bored into her soul. She felt a wave of heat and desire wash over her so suddenly that she actually sighed. Then a sudden realization hit her, shaking her from that gaze._

_He wanted her! His own gaze was so filled with lust and desire. The slight twitch of his lip, the way his chest heaved suddenly. Then his composure reasserted itself and he smiled so seductively that she had to struggle to keep herself in check._

"_Stop that!" she hissed at him, struggling to keep her voice down… _

"Gabrielle? What is it?" David asked. "You look like you just saw a ghost, again?"

"I only now realized," she answered in a distant voice. "How much alike the two of you were?"

"Honey?" David said nervously. "You're starting to freak me out a little here."

Gabrielle looked down at the corpse lying in the sand. "Let's get him back to the temple." She said. "I'll tell you all about it on the way."

They were still deep in conversation when they finally entered their suite later that night.

"No way," David said emphatically. "There is no way that I'm related to that guy!"

"What other explanation could there be?" Gabrielle asked. "I finally understand why the way you've been acting around the High Priest has put me on edge! It's because you act just like him!"

"And it scares you?" David asked.

Gabrielle's voice caught suddenly. Then she shook her head. "I thought it did. But it doesn't."

She paced back and forth trying to put her thoughts into words. "There was something about his presence that – well, excited me." she finally shrugged. Then she smiled at him ruefully. "You have a lot of that presence, which explains how you can excite me too, I guess?"

"Swell," David groaned. He seated himself in a chair and held out his hand.

"All right." He began. "First, you're telling me that these Bacchi are actually now something different? And that they formed the foundation for most of the modern Vampire legends of my time, am I with you so far?"

"You used the word yourself," Gabrielle nodded. "Nickoli's last name was Vampyra, and his daughter told Xena and me that they had chosen to call themselves Vampires, after him?"

"Gabrielle," David said patiently. "There are no vampires where I came from. They were something from old ghost stories. No evidence of them ever existing has ever been found!"

"That you know of," Gabrielle said flatly.

"Right!" David agreed. Then he stopped. "That I know of." He shook his head after a few moments.

"No!" He said emphatically. "Even if they existed, they weren't around by the time I was born," he looked at Gabrielle, suddenly uncertain. "Were they?"

"Why not?" Gabrielle countered. "If the Centaurs, Banshees, Cyclops, and even the Gods existed. Why not them?"

David had to admit it. She had a good point. He rubbed his head.

"And I'm the spitting image of this Nickoli?" he asked.

Gabrielle knelt before him and placed a hand over the whiskers of his beard, covering the side of his face.

She saw for the first time, the outline of his whiskers, had he worn only the goatee.

She nodded.

"Shave this part off, and trim the rest down a touch," she said with a shiver. "And the only difference is the color of your eyes."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Gabrielle said breathlessly. "His were pale green."

She stood up suddenly and stepped away. Then she laughed out loud.

"It's unbelievable," she said dryly. "I fell in love with a man who looks just like one of Xena's old enemies, and I never even realized it until tonight."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing?" David asked nervously. "Is it?"

Gabrielle looked at him and saw the twinge of dread in his eyes. A subtle fear that this revelation might cost him everything. She smiled and knelt down before him again.

"This doesn't change anything, David," she reassured him. "I love you. Nothing will ever change that. Nothing."

David smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he was all business again.

"Well, it seems we have two problems, here." He said. "Three, if you count the interruption of our honeymoon."

Gabrielle smiled.

"Number one: we have a High Priest trying to do magic that he can't handle. Two: we have Vampires at Giza. The sixty-four thousand dollar question is: What do we do about it?"

_"You die,"_ A voice whispered from the balcony.


	4. Onobis Sentius

**Onobis Sentius**

Gabrielle saw David tense as he sat, his hand rubbing his forehead as if he were attempting to quell a headache. Aside for that momentary flicker of tension, he remained aloof. His right hand still rested within the folds of his robe.

"I was wondering how long you would hover on the balcony," he said with a touch of irritation. "As always, a flair for the dramatic entrance."

When a pointed silence was the only response, David sighed.

"Well don't hover at the window!" he barked. "Come on in and start all the nasty things you're hoping to do! We don't have all night!"

There was a flicker of pseudo motion from the balcony, and suddenly, Gabrielle was pinned against the far wall by the same slightly portly figure they had startled earlier.

Gabrielle struggled against the viselike grip around her throat.

"Arijani," She croaked. Then her eyes widened in surprise when she realized David had not moved. In fact, he had done nothing to interfere. He was watching the entire event with perfectly cold detachment.

Arijani also looked back with a malevolent grin. His expression faded to one of mild confusion when he realized that the other was not moving to attack.

David rolled his left hand forward and smiled a soft, cold smile.

"Go ahead, old friend," David said. "Finish it. And then you'll never know how it was done."

David rose with slow deliberation, gesturing to Gabrielle.

"Look at her, Arijani," he said with unnerving calm. "She hasn't aged a bit, has she? Still as young and beautiful as when I brought her before us all those years ago." He smiled and stretched out his arms.

"Now, look upon me," he continued. "I have walked in the sun for over a year! And I stand before you, unmarred. All because of her!"

He stepped to the small table and drained the last of the wine from the flagon, drinking it with relish.

Arijani looked from David to Gabrielle and back again.

"What spell has she cast upon you, my Lord?" He asked. "How could she do this thing?"

David smiled a she wracked his brain to remember the details of her tale. He took another drink of wine and then fixed is gaze on Gabrielle.

"Sleep," he said, raising a hand in her direction. "Now."

Gabrielle went limp, her eyes closing.

Arijani was stunned. His gaze bounced between the two of them in utter astonishment.

"She is a vassal," David said smoothly. "I do not understand all that has happened to return me to this existence, but at the same time, I know that it has. I stand before you, practically the same man you knew, after thirty years."

Arijani let go of Gabrielle's throat and watched her slide to the floor, unconscious.

"Arijani," David said. "Remember when I told you that our change from slave to free creatures was the next step in our evolution as blood drinkers?"

"I remember," Arijani replied uneasily.

"What do you think would be the next step, after our unlife?" David pressed. He stepped to the balcony and looked out at the night. The cup still clasped in his fingers. Then he turned back and smiled. "True immortality, my friend! Not just an existence spent hiding from the sun, but true, complete, total freedom and the endless span of ages to enjoy it!"

The complete disregard for his own apparent safety puzzled the ancient alchemist. At the same time, he was intensely curious. If this man was indeed Nickoli, and he had in fact returned to the land of the living in some way, thenArijani wanted to know how.

Now that he was in the same room with the man, the familiarity of his speech and mannerisms began to toy with Arijani.

Curiosity and bloodlust vied for control. To his own amazement, curiosity won.

"You must tell me how it was done?" The vampire asked finally.

David smiled and looked back to the open balcony. He shrugged. "I don't know."

He returned his gaze to the sleeping monument before him, his eyes searching for the strange grayish aura that emanated from the old vampire. He could see nothing within sight, meaning that the old vampire was probably alone.

"I believe it has something to do with the mixing of my blood and hers," he finally said, gesturing to the motionless Gabrielle on the floor. "I forced her to drink, without taking her blood, in order to lure Xena into a trap. The result was quite amusing. It left her open to my influence, more so than was normal for one of us. I had complete control over her mind."

"And Xena?" Arijani asked.

"Dead," David said simply. "But not by my hand, unfortunately. She fled with Gabrielle and then vanished. I searched for over a generation to find her, but found nothing. Then, I began to hear rumors of the Warrior Princess again, in the Norse lands. I tracked her there and that was when I finally began to get close."

He turned back to Arijani and caught the subtle smile on Gabrielle's lips as she lay motionless.

"Why did you not come to find us, My Lord?" Arijani asked.

David shrugged. "It was as if I were drawn to her," he gestured to Gabrielle. "Something within my blood screamed for me to find her. I cannot explain it any plainer than that."

David set the cup on the small table and looked back at the vampire. He was completely taken into the story. His guard was down.

"Then, as the trail in the Norse lands grew cold, I heard tell that the two of them had gone to the land of Japa, but only one of them returned. Since I knew that Xena had become too soft hearted to place her young friend in danger, I assumed that the survivor was Gabrielle. I returned to Greece – Poditea to be precise, and I waited. Several weeks later, she returned." He held his hand up in a gesture of ownership towards the sleeping Gabrielle.

"You now see the results yourself," he finished. "I beheld her, and I fed upon her. The sensation was intoxicating beyond description, my friend." David sighed. "But I stayed out to long that night and was caught by the rays of the sun before I could reach shelter. Imagine my surprise when the burning sun did nothing to me but hurt my eyes. As you can see." He gestured to his face. "That was the only discomfort. I returned to Poditea and discovered that the young lady was still alive. For the first time, I beheld her in the light of day and realized that she had barely changed at all! It was as if the blood that I gave her had held back the passage of time! And then, to feed on that blood caused what you see here!"

Arijani's eyes were wide in amazement. "It's incredible."

David stepped up to the vampire, completely unafraid. He placed a hand on the alchemists shoulder.

"The amazing part is that she is mine to command, in all things." David smiled. "Half the time, I don't even have to speak - like now!"

David wrenched the vampires arm and flung him against the wall. At the same moment, Gabrielle rolled to her feet, scooping the sais up from the small table and let them fly. The blades punched through the vampires shoulders and impaled him to the wall.

He hissed and spat, but was unable to extricate himself.

David reached into his robes and drew out the bowie knife.

"You are not the Lord Nickoli!" The vampire spat in rage.

"No shit," David said simply. He swung the heavy bowie knife at the vampire's throat. The thick steel blade sliced the vampires head off. It bounced once and rolled into the corner, the eyes going dim.

Gabrielle looked in satisfaction at the head on the floor, and then gasped in horror as David pulled one sai from the wall and allowed the dead vampire's blood to drain into the empty flagon that had held their wine.

"What in Tartarus are you doing?" she gasped in revulsion.

"I have a plan," David said as the flagon filled nearly to the top. The body seemed to wither away as the blood drained from it, leaving only withered flesh on old bones, wrapped in fine robes.

Gabrielle watched in disgust as David sealed the top of the flagon with a large mass of candlewax.

"You have a plan?" Gabrielle repeated. "Do I want to hear this?"

"I have to try something first," David confessed. "If it works, then I'll tell you the whole plan. In the mean time, we need Utanhk!"

David stood near the thick sandstone wall and looked down at the manacles binding his wrists. Large chains ran from the manacles to mounts buried deep in the wall behind him. Torches flickered in the windowless cell. He looked down at the simple loincloth wrapped about his waist, suddenly feeling a bit self conscious.

Before being restrained, David had shaved most of his beard away so that he now wore a goatee just like Nickoli.

"This is your plan?" Gabrielle asked with considerable consternation.

Behind her, Utanhk stood near the thick wooden door, his eyes drifting from David to the dismembered corpse that his acolytes had brought in with the strangers. Then his eyes turned to the flagon of blood and the cup on the small table.

"This is my plan," David answered. He looked up at Gabrielle with nervous eyes. "So do you think this is crazier than the boat surfing idea?"

"David," Gabrielle said. "This goes well beyond crazy. This is insane! What happens if it works, and the change is permanent?"

"It won't be," David said simply.

"What if it is?" Gabrielle countered. "What then?"

"Remember what you told me?" David asked. "What did Imani tell you when she found you later? That Nickoli's blood would have lost its hold upon you in the first rays of the sun?" He thought for a moment. "That gives us about an hour to see if this works."

"She might have been lying, David!" Gabrielle said desperately. "She also told me that I should always hide a lie inside a truth, to make it more believable!"

"Yeah, well," David shrugged helplessly. "This will work."

"You don't know that for sure!" Gabrielle protested desperately.

David reached out and touched her cheek.

"Gabrielle," he said softly as he saw her eyes fill with tears. "Imani is out there, somewhere, right now. She'll never stop coming after us until she either gets what she wants, or is destroyed. If you can think of another option, I'm open to it?"

She thought desperately, but came up with nothing.

"If it turns out to be permanent," she said hoarsely. "I'm drinking it too, you understand?"

David smiled and shook his head.

"No!" Gabrielle hit him on the chest in frustration. "Remember what you said before? In for a penny, in for a pound?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't remember?" David smiled.

"Well I did!" Gabrielle shot back. "It goes two ways, David. All the way, or not at all, okay?"

David smiled and kissed her softly. "This will work."

He nodded to Utanhk who quickly unsealed the flagon and filled the cup with the thick black blood.

David took a deep breath.

"Onobis Illuminotis, Onobis Sentius, Omi Prevarius," he whispered.

"What?" Gabrielle asked.

David grinned his mischievous grin. "I am Light, I am Thought, I Prevail." He winked at her.

Utanhk handed the cup to David and guided Gabrielle a few steps away from him, beyond the reach of his bonds.

David closed his eyes and repeated the mantra quietly aloud for a few moments. Then he looked down at the cup and back up at Gabrielle.

"Oh, this is gonna suck," he said grimly. He raised the cup in salute. "Well, down the hatch."

He fought the natural gag reflex and forced himself to swallow the stuff. It was thick and viscous, with a heavy salty taste.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," he thought.

He forced his body to accept the stuff until the cup was empty and then he let the cup fall to the sandy floor.

For several long seconds, nothing happened

"Oh, man," He groaned. "That was nasty! This had better not be for –" His statement was cut off as he suddenly bent double and gasped in pain.

Gabrielle moved to assist, but Utanhk's strong arm restrained her.

"Wait," he said sternly.

David fell to his knees, doubled over and cried out in agony. His body seemed to be in a state of rebellion. As they watched, his convulsions increased in speed and violence until the thick chains in the wall rattled like the bells of the damned.

Finally, David collapsed onto all fours and stayed there, breathing hard. His fingers curling into the soft sand.

"David?" Gabrielle asked, pushing against Utanhk's arm.

"A moment, if you please?" David replied, but his voice sounded slightly different.

He got slowly to his feet and a soft laugh began to slip from his lips.

When he looked up at her, Gabrielle gasped in horror. The color was draining away from his flesh and the deep thoughtful brown of his eyes seemed to flow away, replaced by a fierce, unholy green.

He looked at her for a long moment and straightened. Then he smiled a perfectly frosty smile and nodded his shaggy head.

"Hello Gabrielle," he spoke in a soft, crisp accent. "It's been simply ages, hasn't it?"

Gabrielle felt her heart sink into a cold pit of terror. She remembered that voice. It was as if her nightmares from the past had suddenly been given form once again.

David looked down at the manacles binding his wrists and smiled. "You don't think these little trinkets will hold me, do you?" he asked in that maddeningly perfect baritone. "You're attempts at frivolity never cease to amaze me."

With a vicious thrust of his arm forward, the mount burst from its mooring. Then the second, and the thing was free.

"I always knew that I could count on you and Xena to fulfill our agreement," it said. "Though I hadn't counted on you actually finding one of my blood descendants for the final play. I thank you. It's truly a shame that your friend is not here to witness my resurrection. I think she would have found it most entertaining."

"Guards!" Utanhk called out as he pulled a stunned Gabrielle back toward the door.

At that, the creature held up his hands.

"Wait a second!" he said quickly. "I had to be certain it was convincing! It's me! Really! I swear to Christ!"

Gabrielle pulled herself free from Utanhk's grasp and stepped up before him, her expression a mixture of hurt and pure rage.

"You bastard!" she said and her hand shot up to slap him.

David deflected the blow easily.

"Gabrielle," he said sincerely. "I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry! But I had to be sure that this was convincing, and after everything you told me about Nickoli. He's the kind of heartless son of a bitch who would have said something like that! I didn't mean it! You know I didn't! If I could convince you, then I have a chance at convincing them!"

Her gaze remained hard as she looked at him. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, it softened just a bit.

"Never, ever use Xena's memory like that again," she said in a voice like ice. "Ever, you understand?"

David held his hands up in surrender. "Completely! Completely understand!"

Suddenly his eyes went wide in surprise.

"Get out of here!" he said quickly, backing a pace away. "Get out and lock the door! Now!"

Even as he spoke, his eyes began to change from pale green to bloodthirsty red, and the eye teeth began to elongate.

Utanhk needed no further urging. He grabbed Gabrielle and shoved her bodily out the door, slamming it behind them and bolting it closed.

"How long before sunrise?" Gabrielle asked quickly as she stood at the small window and watched the internal struggle renew itself.

"The sky should already be paling with dawn," Utanhk replied nervously. "What's happening to him?"

Gabrielle shook her head helplessly. "I don't know!"

David was in the corner, on his knees. His voice sounded low and demonic. Gabrielle suddenly realized he was chanting.

"Onobis Illuminotis, Onobis Sentius, Omi Prevarius, Onobis Illuminotis, Onobis Sentius, Omi Prevarius," said over and over, his body rocking back and forth as he fought this new internal struggle.

Gabrielle found her own voice adding to his in that chant as she reached out to him with her whole soul.

Finally, the deep growl faded to nothing more than small bits of half whispered words as he slowed his rocking and forced the animalistic hunger back down.

"Stay with me, David," Gabrielle begged from the door. "Please?"

David's blood red eyes snapped up at her, and as she watched, they began to fade. The fangs retracted and he slowly ceased moving. His eyes bored into hers, locking his own soul into her gaze.

The fierce inhuman green reasserted itself and he fell back, sitting against the hard stone wall.

"Screw me gently with a chainsaw," he said in a weak voice.

Ignoring the possible threat to herself, Gabrielle slid the bolt free and opened the door. She knelt before him and touched his hand. The flesh was cold under her fingers.

"What was that?" she asked timidly.

"Bloodlust, I think," David replied, leaning his head back against the stone. "I wasn't ready for that little bit."

"What was it like?" Gabrielle asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I wanted you," David smiled. "Which is not a new sensation for me. Heck, I live with that all the time."

Gabrielle smiled softly.

"But this time," David continued. "I wanted you in a way that was wrong! I wanted all of you! The desire was unbelievable! It blew me away! Then the feeding instinct took hold, and all the desire I have for you, usually, was tied to it! If our friend, Tank, there, hadn't gotten you out of here as fast as he did, I might have – " He stopped. "Well, it wouldn't have been like last night, if you know what I mean?"

Gabrielle touched his cheek and then kissed him softly.

David looked at her with those unnatural eyes and smiled. "You took a chance running in here after. I might have been faking it?"

"With a line like, 'screw me gently with a chainsaw'?" Gabrielle smiled. "Only you would say something like that."

David smiled wearily, and in that smile there was no longer any doubt in Gabrielle's mind.

"So much for part one," David groaned. "Is it time for part two yet?"

"Just about," Gabrielle nodded. "Rest for a minute first."

An hour later, they stood within the shade of the western arch, watching as the shadows stretched out from the temple and ended half way across the courtyard.

David blinked at the brightness of the sunlight beyond the shaded confines of the entrance.

"I sure hope this works," he muttered.

He looked back at Gabrielle. "Ready?"

Gabrielle smiled in spite of her angst. "Me?"

A grim smile touched David's lips and then he faced the growing light beyond the temple entrance. He took a few moments, psyching himself up for what he knew must follow, his entire body tensing in fearful anticipation. With several deep breaths, like a diver preparing to submerge, he bolted into the courtyard. He did not stop running until he crossed the line of shadow into the brilliance of the sunlight.

Pain! A million needles of fire poured through his veins in the brilliance of that light. His eyes were struck momentarily blind by the sensation. He raised his arm to ward off the glare and stumbled on, feeling the pressure and heat building within his body. He stumbled to one knee and then forced himself back to his feet, willing his body to move. It felt as if he were being immolated from the inside out. His lungs, heart, and every muscle in his body burned beneath his skin. He passed the outer entrance and made for the dock.

Gabrielle watched as pale smoke began to rise from David's flesh. Dreadblossomed in her heart.

"Something's wrong!" she gasped, and she ran after him, driven by a panic she could never remember feeling before.

She saw him ahead, a smoking mass in the shape of a man, half stumbling, half running towards the river.

She was almost to him when, with a cry of agony, he flung his smoking body into the waters of the Nile.

Gabrielle skidded to a stop at the edge of the dock, just behind their boat. She searched the rippling water desperately. All she saw were along string of bubbles from the place where David had vanished. Then a thick, dark cloud of some other liquid could be seen for an instant, before it dissolved in a heat so ferocious that it caused the surrounding waters to boil.

The water went still.

"David?" Gabrielle called desperately. "David!"

In an explosive fount of water, David burst from the depths, air screaming into his lungs. He clawed his way to the bank, his flesh still steaming in the bright sun.

Gabrielle half hauled him up out of the water and he lay there, gasping, naked in the bright sun. The simple cloth had burned away in the conflagration.

David rolled over and gagged a few more times. The substance that came from him sizzled and burned away almost before it touched the stone.

Gabrielle thought he was gasping in pain, until she realized that the sound she was hearing was hoarse laughter, augmented by his pain.

"Oh, shit!" he rasped. "It worked! It really worked!" He rolled onto his back and stretched out in the sunlight, still laughing as the last vestiges of his pain burned themselves out. "It actually freakin worked!"

"Just be still," Gabrielle said nervously. She laid his robe over his body and then held his head in her lap. She was crying in relief. "Just be still."

"Gabrielle," David started.

"Don't say anything!" Gabrielle cut him off. "Just shut up!"

David's hand reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek. He said nothing. He only smiled triumphantly and closed his eyes.

Gabrielle looked down at him, her emotions running the gambit between rage, to fear, to relief. Finally she sighed in exasperation.

"Just answer one question," she asked, looking down at him.

His deep brown eyes opened and he stared up at her. "What?"

"What in Tartarus is a chainsaw?"

The laughter started as a soft chuckle and grew. The sound was infectious and despite the tumult of emotions, the laughter also burst out of Gabrielle. She punched him in the chest gently and then bowed over him, holding him tightly.

David was on his third plate of food, back in their suite. He ate so ravenously that it seemed he never took a breath. Utanhk and Gabrielle watched him for a while.

"You eat like a starving man," Utanhk finally said.

"I know," David replied. "I don't know why. I guess playing dead can do that to you?"

"Are there any other side effects?" Gabrielle asked.

David looked up at her and smiled. "Aside from still wanting you?" he grinned.

Utanhk cleared his throat loudly.

Gabrielle also smiled. "Yes, besides that."

David considered for a moment and shook his head.

"I'm a little sore, from the sun thing," he said. "If I'm close to the river when the sun comes up next time, I don't think it will be as bad." Then he straightened and smiled. "Oh, there is one other thing. My back and shoulder aren't sore any more?"

Gabrielle stepped behind him and inspected the bruises on his back. Her eyes went wide in astonishment when she discovered that they were completely gone.

"It's like the transformation healed you?" she marveled.

Utanhk straightened. "So the blood of these creatures has healing properties as well?"

"I wouldn't go calling the A.M.A. just yet, buddy," David said quickly. "You saw what the morning sun did to me. I think this is one of those situations where the cure might be worse than the disease?"

"Still," The High Priest continued, his eyes glinting thoughtfully. "There is great power in the blood of these beings?"

"If you want to call it that," David nodded. Then he resumed eating.

Utanhk watched David for a while longer and then excused himself. As the priest left, David saw the expression on his face.

"Uh, oh," he said quietly. "I think the wheels are turning inside that bald head of his?"

"One thing at a time," Gabrielle folded her arms across her chest. "We can worry about Utanhk and his Ritual later. Right now, I'm worried about you?"

David got to his feet, still feeling a bit stiff.

"Honey, I'm fine," he said. "I'm better than fine. I feel great. Just a touch of sunburn, that's all."

"Sunburn, huh?" Gabrielle's eyebrow rose.

"Well, yeah," David nodded. "I was in the sun and I got burned."

He paused suddenly and Gabrielle saw that slightly seductive light in his eyes.

"Oh, and one other little side effect," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I still want you."

Gabrielle smiled and nestled into his embrace. "I married a madman," she sighed.

David held her and smiled. "You'd have been bored with anyone else by now."

As he held her, his mind drifted back to a cold October night, hundreds of years in the future, when she stood on an empty country road, proud and defiant, staring right through him. He smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"So," Gabrielle said, looking up at him. "Now that we know it works. What's your plan?"

David sat back down at the table and munched a date thoughtfully. "We give Imani what she wants."

"Just two problems," Gabrielle replied. "First, we don't know what she wants. Second, we don't know where to find her?"

"Gabrielle," David replied. "We're at Giza, the biggest cemetery in the world. She would have wanted to stay close, so pick a hole?"

"You think she would have stayed by the pyramids?" Gabrielle asked.

"Why not?" David replied. "Can you think of a better place?"

"What?' Gabrielle asked. "So we just start digging into tombs all around Giza and hope we find the right one?"

"No," David shook his head. "I find an unfinished tomb, jump in and have a little drink before sundown, and then I go and hang out. If they're sleeping there, they'll find me. Or, more to the point, we'll find each other?" He gestured towards her with his hand, seeking approval.

"And what exactly will I be doing while you have all the fun?" Gabrielle asked, her hands planted on her hips.

"Ah, well," David said uneasily as he rubbed the back of his head. "I hadn't really thought that far into it, you know what I mean?"

"Mm hmm?" Gabriele fixed him with a dark stare. "You were planning on doing this by yourself again, weren't you?"

"No!" David protested. "I wasn't! I really wasn't!"

She stalked up before him and jabbed him hard in the chest with her finger. "You promised!" She backed him into the corner. "We agreed! No more going at it solo, and now there you go, jumping right into the fire again! Literally!"

David felt his back against the wall. He held up his hands in surrender and he began to laugh.

"I wasn't leaving you out of it!" He continued. "I swear on my mother's life I wasn't!"

"You were going to leave me here, high and dry!" Gabrielle growled.

"You know?" David said, his face splitting with his smile. "You're kind of cute when you get all riled up! You really are!"

The facade broke, and Gabrielle failed to completely choke back her own laughter.

"I really hate you sometimes," She said.

David wrapped his arms around her. "I love you too."

She looked up at him with a sudden earnest. "I won't be on the sidelines this time!" she said. Her fierce eyes bored into his.

"I know," David nodded. "Just hang back in the wings and come charging in to back me up if this goes south, fair enough?"

"I was hoping for something more positive," Gabrielle sighed.

"Believe me," David replied. "I'm not going to be doing this by myself. I'm definitely going to need you on this one."

"This one?" Gabrielle retorted.

"Will you stop that?" David shot back, still smiling. "You know what I mean!"

She smiled and touched his cheek. "Just making sure. That way I won't have to do this!"

In a flash she had wrapped his arm and flipped him over. He landed on the bed with a grunt and laughed. Before he could move, she was on him, looking down at him with that same determined ferocity.

"You realize," David said seriously. "I consider this foreplay, and _you're_ starting."

Her fierce gaze lessened a bit, replaced by something softer and far more inviting. She smiled and lowered herself to him.

The two of them entered the subterranean cell two hours before sundown.

David tossed the empty water skin that he had acquired and went to examine the body of the dead alchemist. The remains were nothing more than dried bones and moldering cloth now, as if time were catching up with it now that the unnatural essence of unlife were gone.

"David?" Gabrielle asked as she lifted the flagon containing the unholy contents. "How much of that stuff did you drink last night?"

"Just that small cup," David replied, frowning. "Why?"

Gabrielle shook the sealed container experimentally. "Because this feels light."

David stepped over and held the flagon. His gaze went dark.

"I think I'll have a word with our friend," he growled.

Gabrielle watched him leave and quickly filled the small water skin. She sealed it and placed it in a box to shelter it from the sun before looking back at the open door. Then she drew from her waist a second water skin.

David stalked down the main hall towards the double doors of the inner sanctum. He had forgone the robes that had been given to him by Utanhk, favoring his regular clothing. Jeans, boots, a tee shirt, vest and his long dark duster. The latter flapped behind him as he walked, like a pair of ghostly wings.

Several adjutants saw him as he approached, but they did nothing to hinder him when they saw the look in his eyes.

There was a simple rule of temple. "Thou shall not hinder the comings and goings of a priest." It was well known among the staff in that temple that the stranger was a priest. A powerful one if Utanhk's words were to be believed.

David didn't even bother to knock. He pulled the doors open and stormed into the inner sanctum, his mind afire with anger and betrayal.

The sanctum was a vast, shadowy hall, dominated by a massive, twenty foot tall statue of the God of the Dead. A single figure could be seen, kneeling in the torchlight.

"Tank!" David said angrily. "We need to have a chat!"

The priest seemed not hear him. He finished whatever incantation he had been reciting before he slowly rose and turned. His dark eyes locking on David's with equal intensity.

"To enter the sanctuary of my God carries the penalty of death, Honored Guest." He growled.

"Funny," David replied. "So does a betrayal of trust, in my book."

The two men faced each other in silence for a few moments, neither on of them wavering.

Finally, Utanhk sighed. "I suppose there is a reason for this intrusion?"

"Where is it?" David asked.

"Where is what?" Utanhk asked in return.

"The blood, Utanhk!" David bellowed. "Half of that flagon of vampire blood! Where is it?"

"I do not know what you are talking about?" Utanhk replied steadily. "All that remains is down in that cell!"

"Bullshit!" David snapped. "We only used one little cup for last night! Now, half the stash is gone! It didn't just get up and walk away!"

Utanhk said nothing. He held David's gaze without flinching.

David's eyebrows rose. "Or maybe, some of it did?" David said with an air of menace.

"I will excuse your accusation, considering what you are planning tonight!" Utanhk said slowly. "I can only assume you are feeling the stress of what is to come!"

David was nose to nose with the priest in one swift step, his eyes blazing.

His finger rose to point at Utanhk, trembling with rage.

"You," he said in a voice that grated like stone. "Don't want to fuck with me!"

"Need I remind you," Utanhk said in a quite rasp. "That you are a guest in this temple! If you have an accusation to place, then do so! But understand this, if your accusation is proven false, I will expel you from this place and leave you to the mercy of the desert! You and your wife!"

David's expression twitched into a savage grin, just for a moment. "Threaten me, play with me, fuck with me all you want!" He said. "But don't ever, _ever_, threaten the woman I love! The last one that did, I drove insane and left in a place that would make the Eater of Souls seem appealing! Dig?"

David backed two steps away. "You and I will settle up later. I've got shit to do." He held a finger up in his direction, a gesture of warning, or perhaps of things to come before turning and stalking out the open doors.

Several adjutants stood in the doorway, watching the confrontation.

"**Out of my way!**" David bellowed. The echoes bounced between the stone pillars like a roll of thunder, sending the onlookers scattering like frightened sheep.

Gabrielle met him in the stairwell heading up towards the exit.

"I heard the bellow," she commented. "I take it things didn't go well?"

"That bald headed son of a bitch has it!" David hissed as he paced back and forth. "I know it!"

"Maybe he does," Gabrielle shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it at the moment, right?"

David took a deep breath forcing his temper back in check. It took several more similar breaths before he regained his composure.

Gabrielle watched him for a moment and a knowing look appeared.

"He threatened me, didn't he?" She nodded, smiling.

"What do you mean?" David replied quickly.

Gabrielle smiled. "The only time I've seen you this worked up was when you came after me at Mogador."

David's expression didn't change. Then he smiled and a soft laugh burst from him.

"Okay, okay," He admitted. "He made a few off remarks."

Gabrielle handed him the water skin. "Ready?"

David took the box and slipped it into the oversize pocket within is coat.

"You come up with anything for your end?" he asked.

Gabrielle smiled in a way that made David nervous.

"I have a few ideas," she said vaguely. "Don't worry. I'll be there when you need me."

"Okay," David said, leading the way. "One more time, tell me everything you can about our good friend Nickoli."


	5. Shadow Play

**Shadow Play**

The sun had finally vanished beneath the distant dunes. Imani, Seftus and Sindis all emerged from the three tombs, looking like reanimated corpses. They each felt the thirst welling up within them.

Imani stretched luxuriously, her pale eyes scanning the growing darkness in anticipation. Then she frowned.

"Where is Arijani?" she asked. Her two companions had no answer. Something like concern crept into her mind. The three of them began moving towards the edge of the necropolis, heading towards the temple guest quarters.

"Hello, Imani," The voice was smooth, crisp in a gentle baritone.

The three of them turned toward the source and Imani's mouth dropped open in shock.

A low hiss escaped Sindis's lips and her eyes went red with wrath.

Seftus merely studied the apparition closely, with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Perched atop a large stone dome, wrapped in a long dark coat, and looking like a huge bird of prey, was Nickoli. His hands were clasped before him, elbows resting on his knees.

His eyes shone fiery green in the light of the rising moon. He smiled a perfectly icy smile at the trio.

"It's been a long time?"

Imani's gaze flicked back towards the guest quarters and then to her father creator.

"So many questions," Nickoli said, smiling. "Maddening, isn't it?"

His fierce green eyes flicked to Sindis, eyes ablaze with rage. Her entire body was tensed to spring at her victim. The fingers of her hands curled into hunting talons.

"Sindis," Nickoli said easily. "It isn't difficult to deduce what you intend. I don't recommend it." His one eyebrow rose as if her anger amused him.

"You promised me my vengeance," Sindis hissed angrily.

Imani looked at Nickoli carefully. He merely sat composed, a bemused, patient expression on his face.

"If you think you can take your revenge?" Imani suggested. "Then, by all means, do it."

She was studying this figure carefully. Outwardly, it was her creator, the father of their race. But something within her dead heart screamed a warning.

Nickoli dropped lightly to the ground, and a sword appeared in his right hand. He stood tall, poised, his weapon behind him, pointed at the ground.

"If you truly wish to pursue this to its final stupidity?" He said with just a hint of regret. "Then, by all means?"

Gabrielle rested twenty feet up the eastern side of the great pyramid, watching the confrontation with considerable angst.

As well trained a fighter as her husband was, three supernatural beings on one was still a pretty one sided bout.

Then she saw the figure of Sindis and her eyes went wide. The young former Amazon warrior was the sister to the girl that David had inadvertently killed in Tripolis. Somehow, she had allied herself with these undead creatures and become one of them.

The appearance of that enemy decided Gabrielle's mind. She pulled out the second water skin filled with vampire blood and drank.

Her mind wandered back suddenly to a time, thirty years prior. She was running through the tall grasses, carrying the bag filled with Arijani's Black Scrolls slung over her shoulder. She had nearly reached the path, the sounds of Xena fighting in a battle fading behind her, when an arm wrapped about her shoulders and threw her off her feet.

Then a hand clapped over her mouth and the sensation entered her body.

The feeling was identical, except this time, she was forcing herself to do it of her own accord.

The liquid flowed into her like salty molasses. It seemed to settle in her belly like a heavy weight. She breathed in anticipation a few times, and then the mass in her gut exploded outward into every fiber of her being. She reeled from the shock of it. She had been expecting the white hot sensation of agony when the change began. Instead, the feelings were so over filled with pleasure that it made her hurt.

She suppressed a cry of agony. Her grip on the smooth face of the pyramid failed and she rolled back down, striking the hard stone at the bottom with a sickening thud.

The sensation was like a siren wailing in his mind. He winced in sudden pain as something flashed through his soul.

His free hand rose to his head and the sword fell from his numbed fingers.

A burst of agony seemed to rifle through the right side of his body before burning itself out just as quickly. He dropped to one knee.

"Nickoli!" Imani cried out.

Sindis, seeing her opportunity for vengeance, charged in with a hiss of rage.

The figure of Nickoli seemed to suddenly float off the ground, spinning horizontally in the air, the sword back in his hand. The blade sliced across the Amazon's midsection, and Nickoli landed several yards away, his green eyes ablaze.

"Not very sporting, my dear," he chided her.

Sindis looked down at the wound across her middle and smiled. Her smile faded when the injury was slow to heal. She saw the black blood on her opponent's sword, glistening in the moonlight.

"Do you wish to continue?" Nickoli asked evenly, spinning the weapon casually. Behind those cool eyes, David's mind was reeling with the sudden onslaught.

"What the hell was that?" he thought furiously. Another thought entered his mind, unbidden and very unexpected.

"_Me and my bright ideas,"_ it said in a hauntingly familiar voice. Then he swore he heard a groan. It sounded like Gabrielle!

"What the hell did she do?" he thought angrily. Then he had to focus again on Sindis. The Amazon warrior, undaunted by the severe injury, charged in again, this time, she leapt clear of his blade and managed to slash at her opponent with claw like hands.

There was the sound of shredding cloth, and David saw the holes in the flap of his coat as he spun.

Sindis landed like a cat, here eyes filled with demonic hunger.

"That's quite enough out of you, miss," he said in that same neutral calm. In his heart he knew she wouldn't listen.

"_No, she won't,"_ Gabrielle's voice rang in his mind again.

David blinked. "Will you stop that?" he thought angrily.

"_Sorry,"_ Gabrielle's voice echoed back. _"Don't move."_

Again, Sindis charged in. This time, before David could close with her, another shape burst from the darkness and collided with the charging Amazon.

Two figures rolled across the ground in a cloud of dust.

David's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped open in astonishment.

Gabrielle rose like a graceful hunting cat, her eyes blazing with unholy fire. She moved with a fluidity that was inhuman. She hissed in challenge at Sindis.

The younger Amazon was too shocked to do much of anything at first. In her preternatural state, she was certain that she could have taken Gabrielle, and mostly certain that David would have also fallen. This twist of circumstance had never entered her mind.

"What are you?" She hissed at David.

David merely smiled and twirled the sword a few more times.

"What do you think we are, child?" He asked in Nickoli's entrancing baritone.

Imani's question was a bit simpler. "What is the child doing here?" she asked, pointing at Gabrielle.

Gabrielle stepped back over to stand at David's side, her hands clasping over his shoulder as she looked at the others hungrily. Her every move was a seduction.

"You crazy little bitch!" David thought angrily, though he kept his face calm.

"_Watch it!" _Gabrielle's voice responded in his mind. She turned and placed a gentle kiss on his pale cheek.

That simple familiarity seemed to enrage Imani. Her breath heaved in anger.

"I understand that you had a fascination with her when she was before us," she hissed in anger. "But you told me that was all?"

"I was preparing you, Imani," David replied carefully. "To lead the conclave after all was done. I truly did not expect to survive our little encounter with the Warrior Princess."

"How did you survive, My Lord?" Seftus asked suddenly. "I saw your body when I returned to the temple."

"Titus's body," David lied easily. "You saw Titus's body, and that of his bodyguard."

"_I don't know him,"_ Gabrielle's thought informed him. _"He wasn't at the temple when I was there. At least, I didn't see him?"_

David looked at the new vampire with detached curiosity.

The slender vampire stepped closer, studying David closely. A smile began to creep across his thin features. A knowing smile!

"You are not the Lord Nickoli." He said with complete certainty.

Imani looked at David and Gabrielle for one long moment, then her eyes went blood red and she screamed a cry that would wake the dead.

"Destroy them!"

In one, the three vampires attacked.

David had a split second of amusement when Gabrielle's mind rang in his head.

_"Oh shit!"_

The two met and deflected the attack. The three vampires went tumbling away, coming up on their feet and swooping in again, fangs extended, mouths frothing with rage and thirst.

David gave up all pretense at playing the part of Nickoli and went to his own style of combat. The uncharacteristic attacks confused the vampires for a few precious moments, long enough for David to land a devastating blow against the one who had seen through their bluff.

Seftus felt the steel of David's sword slash in his belly once, twice, a third time, and then his head went sailing into the darkness.

Gabrielle tumbled across the sand with Imani's hands grasping for her throat or shoulders, her fangs descending to bite, pulling back and descending again as she tried to latch onto her enemy.

Sindis pressed David steadily back towards the massive sloping side of the Great Pyramid, her claws slashing in at him again and again, her eyes blazing like fiery embers.

Instead of taking the offensive, David fought defensively, keeping the vampire at bay.

"Don't make me destroy you, Sindis!" he shouted desperately.

He caught the woman's wrists and held her at bay. His temporary preternatural strength evening the odds of the fight.

Her foot kicked up into his chest and he bounced against the limestone casing of the Pyramid with a velocity that would have killed him if he were not in his vampiric state.

He slid back to the ground and looked up at her, his eyes going red.

"You're pushing me!" he warned her in an inhuman growl.

Sindis's foot shot in again. David rolled away and the foot blasted a chunk of the Pyramid's smooth surface to powder.

David was over and on his feet in an instant.

"Fine!" he roared. "You want to dance? Let's dance!"

This time, when David attacked, he didn't hold back. The blows landed so quickly that the Amazon fighter was struck down in a matter of moments. She went skidding into the darkness, screaming in rage.

David, eyes alight with red fury, leapt nearly twenty yards through the air after her. She rolled away as his knee slammed into the stone on the ground. Spider webs of cracks sprouted from the impact with a sickening crunch, then he was up and upon her again, beating her steadily and relentlessly back towards the confrontation between Gabrielle and Imani.

Something suddenly screamed in his mind and he recognized it from his earlier experience. The shark like frenzy of blood lust!

With a series of brutal strikes he knocked Sindis to the ground and snapped one of her legs. The Amazon went down with a cry of pain. She looked up at him in fury as she willed her injury to regenerate.

David leapt through the air towards the other two battling creatures.

Gabrielle's eyes were a brilliant yellow, rimming in red. Her eye teeth were extended and she held Imani down. She raised her head high, like a serpent preparing to strike.

David caught her from the side and the two of them went rolling away.

Gabrielle rolled over onto all fours, her eyes fixed on David with predatory fury.

"No!" David shouted. "Don't drink!"

Gabrielle stared at Imani as she came darting around a fallen tomb. She hissed in rage.

David also turned and held out his hand.

"Onobis Illuminotis!" David shouted in a commanding voice, and suddenly, Imani's flesh began to char. She fell back and scooted across the sand out of reach of the spell. Her flesh burned as if exposed to the light of the sun, and yet there was no light.

Sindis came running up and also crashed into the invisible barrier. Crying out in frustration, she also retreated.

"Gabrielle!" David turned back to her, snapping her attention from the two stricken vampires.

"Look at me," he said more slowly. Her eyes fixed on him as if he would make satisfying prey.

"It's Blood Madness!" Imani called to him. "You cannot stop it! You must destroy her, or she will kill everyone within a hundred leagues of this place!"

David's eyes didn't waver.

"Look at me," he said more slowly.

Gabrielle's head twitched as the thought echoed through her mind.

"_Look at me…"_

David raised his other hand in her direction.

"Think, Gabrielle," he said slowly. "Onobis Sentius."

Imani watched this stranger with amazement. His voice was the same commanding voice of her father creator, and yet it was filed with a power of command that Nickoli himself had never possessed.

David's eyes bored into Gabrielle's with reptilian intensity.

"Onobis Sentius," he said again.

Again her head twitched slightly as if the thought of those words hurt her.

"_Onobis Sentius…"_

Gabrielle's body began to tense as if for a spring. The words reverberated in her mind, masking out everything, including her frenzied rage.

Her head dropped towards the ground, her body shaking.

"Gabrielle?" David asked softly – almost pleading. "Come back to me?"

All the tension seemed to leave Gabrielle's body. Her hissing became an exhausted rasping for breath. When she raised her head again, her eyes were still fierce and demonic in their light, but they were green, and the fangs had receded.

"Onobis Sentius?" she croaked.

David smiled and went to her.

"That's my girl," he said and he wrapped his arms around her.

Imani and Sindis, still healing from their wounds watched this in amazement.

"Do you know how many of us I have had to destroy because of the Blood Madness?" she asked in awe. "Not even my Nickoli could accomplish what you just did?"

"Doesn't matter!" Sindis spat.

David's eyes flashed on the crippled Amazon. "If I wanted you dead!" he spat at her. "Then you'd be dead!"

Sindis said nothing. She simply stared at David with utter contempt.

David held her gaze for a moment, and then rose.

"Fine!" he said angrily. "Enough of this!"

He retrieved his sword and stood over the Amazon, his eyes boring down at her angrily. He looked more like a disapproving father than an angered warrior.

He pointed his sword at her neck, and then flipped the weapon, catching the blade and extending the hilt to her.

"Here," he said.

Sindis looked at the hilt before her. Her hand wrapped about it.

"If you feel that my defeating your sister in honorable combat will not be satisfied until you've taken my life, then, fine. Take it."

He released the blade and stepped back, his hands clasping behind him.

"No!" Gabrielle cried hoarsely. She struggled to rise, but failed.

Sindis got to her feet, her eyes boring into David's with anger.

She held the tip of the blade at his chest.

"Consider one thing," David said calmly. "What will you gain by this?"

"Revenge!" Sindis hissed at him.

David shook his head regretfully.

"Revenge?" he repeated. "No, that's not it."

He looked at her for a moment, and then he sighed in resolution.

"You won't bring Yania back," he said. "You won't replace the love you have for her. You'll gain a black hole where your heart used to be. Where Yania still is, if you stopped long enough to feel her. Yes, I took your sister's life. I can't undo that. But you will kill her soul. That is what you'll gain. That's all you'll gain."

He nodded, and dropped to his knees. "Do as you will."

Sindis looked down at him, kneeling patiently, waiting for her blow to fall. Then her eyes fixed on the weapon in her hands.

One stroke. One swing and her search would be over. She would have what she desired. She would have the very thing that she had sold her soul to achieve.

Then her eyes flicked to Gabrielle, still struggling to move, her strength completely spent. She saw the pain in Gabrielle's eyes. The sheer, torture of that moment seemed to break something in her chest. Instantly, a child like look of memory flooded into her eyes.

Gabrielle was pleading with her silently, her head shaking in desperate fear.

When she looked also at Imani, the elder vampire was staring at this man with undisguised awe. No this was not her Nickoli, but it didn't seem to matter.

The hands grasping the hilt of the weapon began to tremble. Sindis raised it to strike, her face a mask of battling emotions. She held the blade aloft, the edge shimmering in the moonlight.

Something like a sob burst from her lungs, and the weapon fell to the ground with a clatter.

She also sank to her knees in front of David. When he looked back up, she was staring at him with a mixture of realization andfear.

"In one of the countries I have traveled," David said gently. "There is a custom, when one family harms another. Know that I am sorry for the sister I have taken from you. In payment of this debt, I offer myself as a brother to you, to serve in her stead."

When she looked into his eyes, she saw the honest pain within them, just before he bowed his head.

Tears of blood welled up in her eyes as she saw him kneeling there. And in that moment, the final rage snapped and melted away into grief. She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder and then fell into his arms sobbing.

When he finally looked up at Imani, her gaze was cold.

"You are not my Nickoli," she said in a grating hiss. "Yet you are? Who are you, really?"

David looked thoughtful for a moment. "I am," he said at last. "A descendant? A reincarnation? Maybe a Great Grandson, nine hundred times removed? I don't really know." He sighed wearily. "Does it really matter?"

Imani was about to respond when suddenly, both he and Gabriele clutched their hands to the sides of their heads and cried out in agony.

The very ground beneath their feet began to shake. A deep rumbling noise could be heard from deep within the bowels of the earth.

Gabrielle's and David's minds were on fire. A single word seemed to echo through the furthest recesses of their brains!

"_**Ka-Ma'at!"**_

Imani and Sindis looked at them in shock and horror as the smooth stones of the outer face of the pyramid riddled with cracks and began to fall away like an avalanche. Something high above seemed to pop, and then the massive capstone came tumbling down the side of the pyramid, right at them!

The last thing David remembered was a stray thought.

"Utanhk! You idiot!' Then the world twisted violently and everything went black.

He felt the wind in his face in a way that he had almost forgotten. The air was whipping through his hair. Beneath him he heard the unforgettable sound of Rosie, thundering down a long dark road, as she had done with him countless times in the past. He felt the smooth feel of the hand grips beneath his fingers, the simple smooth response as he twisted the throttle.

He raised his ankle to rest on the highway bar and breathed deeply of the cool fresh air.

The constellation of Orion hung in the sky ahead of him, brighter than the other stars.

A distant memory flashed into his mind. A part of a drunken conversation with Dusty, now eons in his past.

"_When you ride, go full speed till you see God," _he said smiling_. "Then turn left!"_

David smiled. Why had that thought entered his mind, of all things?

He fixed his eyes on the road ahead, and then he saw it, rising monolithic in the distance. It was a massive stone edifice, in the shape of a squared arch. It was covered in hieroglyphic inscriptions, and seemed to stretch all the way up to the stars themselves.

David recognized the structure from a mural he had seen earlier. One of the seven gates that led to Osirus's Hall of Judgment!

"Oh, Hell no!" David said aloud.

His foot slammed down on the rear brake and Rosie screeched to a halt, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

He dismounted and looked about, stepping forward a few paces.

Looking back, he saw another stone archway behind him. Had he already passed through that one? If so, how many had he already passed before he realized where he was?

Something akin to panic began to grip his mind. He forced that down and focused his mind.

"Panicking will do you no good," he thought. "Think, dammit! Think!"

His eyes fell back on Rosie, sitting patiently, lights shining in the darkness like eyes. The engine rumbled quietly.

"_Go full speed until you see God…"_

David turned back to face the arch before him. Rage blossomed in his soul.

"This was supposed to be my god damned honeymoon!" He shouted angrily. His voice vanished into the void without so much as an echo.

He paced back and forth his wrath burning like a fire in his heart. Again, his eyes fell on Rosie.

"_Go full speed until you see God…"_

He looked back and forth between the arch and his motorcycle, those words echoing in his memory like some form of subtle plea.

Pursing his lips, he took another look at the arch the defiant fire rising in him.

"Alright," he nodded to the edifice. "Alright, you son of a bitch!"

He strode purposefully towards the bike and settled onto the seat.

The engine roared a few times as he stared ahead at the road before him.

"Come on baby," he said aloud to the bike. "One last blast!" Then he shouted to the road ahead. "You want me! You got it!"

The engine roared and smoke erupted from the rear tire as Rosie thundered forward.

The wind around him became a hurricane as he cycled through the gears, engine wailing like the cry of some angered beast. His long coat flapped behind him like black demonic wings. Heroared through the next arch and instantly he was in daylight. Desert stretched out on all sides with only this single ribbon of black running straight and true into the horizon.

"Come on!" David cried out.

He saw another arch looming in the distance and passed through it without even slackening his speed. He watched the speedometer climb past one hundred and thirty, beginning to turn all the way around back to the zero position.

The dividing line was a single white blur beneath his tires, the wind drowned out the thunder of the engine as he pressed on. He saw nothing but the blacktop ahead of him.

The fourth arch whipped past him and he was once again in the pitch dark of night. This time, Orion and the moon blazed down, nearly as bright as day, bathing him alone in silvery light.

"_Go full speed until you see God…"_

Ahead he saw another arch coming to him. He centered the bike on the blur of white bisecting the road.

"You got gate crashers in the Underworld?" he roared. His right hand cranked back on the throttle as if he could open it even further. Beneath him, Rosie howled in defiance.

The arch rushed up to meet him. Beyond it he could see the faint flicker of torchlight in the Hall of Judgment. He caught a glimpse of movement beyond the entrance.

"_Go full speed until you see God…Then turn left!"_

At the last moment, David slammed on the brakes and cranked down to his left. Rosie shot off the road and past the outer edge of the final archway. The screech of the tire ceased and he felt himself falling into a void, laughing like a madman.

"Screw you!" He thundered.


	6. Omi Privarius

**Omi Prevarius**

David sat upright in surprise, the sound of thunder echoing somewhere above him. He was lying on a large stone slab, somewhere beneath the ground. Instantly he regretted his action of a moment before. Rivulets of pain washed through his upper body. He groaned.

"Yes, that was pretty foolish," a silky voice said from behind him. Feeling, as well as hearing the bones of his neck and shoulders pop and crack, he turned his head and saw Imani lounging against the far wall of the small enclosed chamber. A single three foot tall passage opened up off to her side, and the path it showed led gently upwards.

They were in a tomb!

More thunder rumbled overhead. Imani saw David's eyes flick towards the low ceiling and sighed.

"It's been like that all day," she commented easily. "Imagine, thunder and dark clouds over the desert?"

"Why am I in a tomb?" David asked wearily.

"I brought you here," Imani answered evenly. "To allow your body to heal during the passing day."

She strode over to stand at his side and looked down at him critically for a moment.

"The bones and muscles of your limbs have healed. The rest of you is progressing slowly. You will need to feed when we emerge tonight."

David smiled grimly. "Not likely. Where are Gabrielle and Sindis?"

Imani smiled. "Sindis is in the next chamber, sleeping. Gabriele stayed out in the rising sun in order to burn Arijani's blood out of her body." She folded her arms and nodded in approval. "Using his blood to emulate our powers was quite brilliant, if I may say?"

"Thank you." He looked at her as he tried to get comfortable on the unyielding stone. "Why aren't you asleep?"

Imani shrugged her delicate shoulders. "Sometimes I do not sleep during the day. In those rare instances, I must simply wait for the sun to set. It is an exercise in patience."

"Insomniac, huh?" David smiled grimly.

"I spend those days in contemplation of various subjects." Imani continued as if she hadn't heard him. "Today, I have been contemplating you."

"Why didn't you just finish me off when you had the chance?" David asked.

Imani smiled coldly. "If we meet again, in the future, I may. But on this day, I decided that I owed you this small consideration, since you did actually save my life?"

"Life for a life?" David asked. "Maybe a favor for a favor?"

At those words, Imani stiffened for a moment, as if something from her past had just reared up before her. Then the flash of anxiety was gone, replaced by a cool calculating smile.

"I look at you, and I see and hear so much of Nickoli, that I almost believe you are he." She said. "Even the means by which you neutralized our advantage. I could see Nickoli exercising such a strategy. You have the same bearing. The same noble stature, even some of the same words. So alike, and yet, so distinctly different? And then there is the power of your will. How you could overcome the Blood Madness in Gabrielle, and hold myself and Sindis at bay with a word of command, at the same moment? In some ways you have surpassed Nickoli? I would understand how it happened?"

"It's a very long story," David sighed. "Tedious at times and hopelessly complicated."

"But fascinating, I expect?' Imani replied with just a hint of eager desire. "As was the journey you were just on?"

David looked over at her in surprise. "What do you know of that?"

"Only that you talk in your sleep," Imani answered. "Tell me: What did you mean by 'Gatecrashers in the Underworld'?"

At that, David began to laugh, though the effort, at first, caused him some discomfort. Slowly, he forced himself to sit upright, wincing at the effort.

"Feels like a truck hit me?" he said.

"The capstone," Imani corrected him.

"What?"

"The capstone from the Great Pyramid," Imani explained. "Just a glancing blow, by any account, but even that was enough to kill any mortal man." She smiled at the recollection. "You're little companion was quite put out."

"How did you find us, anyway?" David asked suddenly.

Imani's smile didn't fade. "Ah, that was Ghoul's work."

"Ghoul?" David thought. "The one that Gabrielle ran into in the catacombs of your old temple?"

Imani nodded. "He and his brethren stayed in Greece, for the most part, though some of them have moved north to other regions. It was he who beheld you and Gabrielle by a lake near her home." She slowly tapped her chin with one delicate finger. "The interesting thing is that he also said that you perceived him?"

David thought back to when they had been planning the wedding. That evening by the lake, after a long swim, while he and Gabrielle were enjoying a late dinner by a fire.

A strange, icy watchfulness had come over them both, though they couldn't find the source.

"Being a blood descendant of Nickoli," Imani speculated. "Probably means that some of her perceptions have been handed down to you over the years. Gabrielle, however is a different story?"

"Nickoli forced her to drink his blood," David said easily. "Even after the effects had passed, who knows what side effects were left behind?"

"Ah," Imani nodded. "I was forgetting her previous transformation."

"Yeah," David mused. "Which reminds me? How did you go from being Bacchi to being Vampires? Gabrielle gave me the cliff notes, but a lot of it doesn't make sense?"

"Another, as you say – long story." Imani replied, smoothly skirting the subject.

David, however, was not so easily dissuaded.

"I don't need the gory details," he countered easily. "Just give me the Readers Digest version?"

Imani stared at him, not understanding the reference. David aided her understanding by holding his thumb and forefinger a couple of inches apart. She clasped her hands together before her and gave a subtle nod.

"Very well. In short, during the fight against Xena, Marshal Titus was stricken down on the field. As he lay dying, he fed on the blood of another dying man and so saved himself. However, instead of regenerating as a Bacchi, he became something else. Something completely different, and free of Bacchus's control."

"He became undead," David nodded. Again, Imani paused. It was the word that Nickoli had coined in his explanation to them and to Gabrielle and Xena during their last encounter.

"Quite," she continued. "Ignorant of this change, he returned to Bacchus and reported that Nickoli had been chivalrous in battle, allowing Xena to live. Bacchus imprisoned Nickoli in a sealed cavern for ten years as punishment for his honorable actions. While imprisoned, Titus visited Nickoli and converted him in order to save him from the Blood Madness that Bacchus hoped would kill Nickoli. When Nickoli escaped, he fled from Bacchus and lost himself in the world. He eventually made it to this country and hid among the shadows of night as he strove to understand what he had become. On his travels, he found others and gave them the gift. He found me here."

"In Egypt?" David's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Yet one more little quirk that brought me a false hope that you were he." Imani said coldly.

It soon became apparent that we were forever bound to Titus and Nickoli, as long as Titus existed. That was when Nickoli devised a way for us to be completely free. We had to eliminate Titus, and then Nickoli had to also die."

"Titus created only one other," David nodded. "But Nickoli created several. A nice cluster of roots for a diverse family tree."

"Precisely." Imani smiled. "When Xena and Gabrielle helped us dispose of Titus, Nickoli needed Xena to also finish the job by killing him. He led her precious Gabrielle into a trap, plotted the distribution of the Black Scrolls of Arijani, and then lured Xena in to finish the job, knowing that the 'greater good' would be the recovery of those writings to protect mankind." She laughed quietly. "Allowing Xena to save Gabrielle was merely an added twist to make the danger more palpable. And it worked perfectly."

"Yes it did," David nodded. "Because, in spite of the half truths and lies within the scrolls, there is also the truth. Ways in which you can be destroyed."

It was David's turn to smile knowingly. "Nickoli knew that, over time, mankind would decipher the real truths hidden in those writings. He knew that nothing should last forever."

"Foolishness," Imani scoffed.

"Really?" David asked. "Then why not create a total fiction? Why not give mankind a complete list of dead ends? He knew that even an immortal must have a chance at death in order to truly appreciate life. How boring would your existence be if there was truly nothing that could harm you? No challenge, no risk, no thrill? A part of every living thing must exist knowing that something is stalking them, even if it is only the creeping shape of death itself over time?"

"In the end, your kind will go the way of all things." He smiled coolly at her. "Where I come from, the Vampire has been completely eradicated. Your kind no longer exists." He shrugged. "Sorry."

"I don't believe you!" Imani hissed.

"Suit yourself." David shrugged, feeling the final bits of pain fade as his injuries completed their healing. He bent down and looked out through the small opening. A shadow moved beyond, and Sindis entered. She actually seemed relieved to see David conscious.

"The sun has set," she reported. "It's safe to go out."

David dropped from the slab to the floor.

"Good," he clapped his hands together. "We need to find Gabrielle. And then, I have an appointment with a very naughty High Priest!"

They emerged into the final fading light of the sun as it set behind the distant horizon. Instantly, David felt that something was terribly wrong.

"She would have made for the river," he said, and he pressed ahead.

"Then seek her," Imani said coldly. "Sindis and I have other obligations to attend to first. I suggest that you do not delay long yourself, or you might not retain your own sanity?"

David looked back at her and smiled sardonically. "We'll see."

He turned and ran, with inhuman speed towards the Nile.

He found burnt shreds of cloth lying on the stones as he ran. Like a trail that led to the dock. Apparently, Gabrielle had not made it there ahead of time as they had planned.

"Not good," David muttered as he held up a piece of her halter. Then his eyes fixed on the boat, moored at the dock. It sat lower than it should, resting at an odd angle.

"Definitely not good," he repeated and he ran as fast as he could to the dock.

The river was gone, though the track of it was still present, overgrown with water vegetation and caked in a thick layer of dark wet earth.

"The track of the river shifted at some point in history," Professor McGhee's voice rang in his memory. "The how and why of that is a complete mystery."

"Mystery solved," David sighed. His preternatural eyes scanned the surrounding area for his wife.

A soft moan sounded somewhere to his right.

"Gabrielle?" he called and he dropped to the mucky earth below.

He sank in to his ankles and pushed forward, calling for his wife.

Then his eyes found what he sought. A heat signature, concealed beneath a layer of mud. It was moving weakly.

Gabrielle lay on the bank, covered in a thick layer of damp mud, her clothing gone, much like his had been.

He pulled his long coat off and knelt beside her.

"What happened?" he asked nervously.

Her eyes opened and David could see the texture of blisters on her flesh from her return to the living.

"Thirsty," she croaked.

Gently, David lifted her to him and vaulted for their suite.

The bath had been prepared, but the water was not warm. Gently, David lowered her into the large tub, watching as clouds of earth lifted from her red flesh.

She cried out softly as the luke warm water touched her, and then she seemed to relax.

David grabbed a cup and filled it from a water jug nearby. She took a sip and coughed most of it back up.

"Easy now," he said gently. She took the cup in her weak fingers and drank on her own.

David bent and grabbed a wash towel. Gently he began to clan the earth from her face and hair.

"I thought I lost you," Gabrielle finally managed to say. Her eyes closed under his gentle ministrations.

"Not likely," David smiled as he poured more water through her hair. "I keep telling you. I'm here for the duration."

"I was certain Imani would finish you, once I was gone," Gabrielle continued.

"What ever she is," David replied. "She has a very strong sense of honor. If she said she wouldn't hurt me, she meant it."

"How would you know that?" Gabrielle asked.

"Because of what she did in the past, when she spoke with you and Xena, after that whole thing with Nickoli."

Gabrielle grimaced. "She was there to gloat."

David nodded. "She might have been gloating, but she still told you. It was her way of clearing the debt between you."

David finished his task and stepped back. He surveyed her deep pink, and in some places, reddened skin. He smiled. "In a few days," he said softly. "You're going to peel like a snake."

"Gee, thanks," Gabrielle replied weakly.

David rose and smiled. "Just sit tight for a minute," he said. "I'll be right back."

She barely caught the hint of strain in his voice, but when he turned away towards the other room; she saw a subtle hint of red flash in his eyes.

He moved quickly, but reluctantly from the room. Gabrielle felt a shiver run up her spine. Though the transformation of her husband was only temporary, he was still very, very dangerous in his 'starved' state.

David felt the hunger boiling in his belly. He went across the room and knelt in the corner, his back to the wall and hugged his knees to his chest as the painful hunger pains began. He felt the fire in his mind and fought the unholy drive with all his strength. He felt himself break out into a cold sweat.

"Not…going…to…happen!" he growled. Then the mantra began again, and he focused on those words as he rocked back and forth.

Gabriele sat in the cool water, listening to the beastly voice in the other room, chanting like a damned spirit in Tartarus. Her own fear grew as the words became more and more strained until they were unintelligible.

Slowly, she forced her pained muscles to move and got out of the tub, wrapping a cloth about her and crept quietly to the doorway. She could see him, huddled in the corner, his body balled up tight as he swayed.

An icy hand touched her shoulder and she wheeled about in fright. Her eyes locked with Sindis, which didn't really help her relax.

"Wait," she said quietly. Gabrielle saw the small trickle of fresh blood at the corner of her mouth. "It isn't safe yet."

Gabrielle relaxed, but only a little as she saw Imani enter from the balcony, moving over towards David as if she were floating on air.

Imani stopped, standing proudly over David, and fixing him with a critical look.

"Not…yet!" David growled, his red eyes still ablaze with maddened hunger.

Slowly, she knelt before him and stared into his eyes.

"You cannot win this battle," she said knowingly. She smiled at him in a way that made Gabrielle's skin crawl.

"You must feed," Imani continued in that soft voice.

"No!" David growled, shaking like an addict on a crash.

Imani slowly raised her arm towards David. "You must, or you will go mad."

"No!" David growled again with more vehemence.

"My blood will sustain you," Imani continued relentlessly. "And in the morning, it shall burn out of you, just as Arijani's shall."

"He doesn't believe you!" Gabrielle said angrily. "And neither do I!"

At the sound of her voice, David's eyes shot up and any control he had been clinging to was instantly lost in the presence of a living being. He launched himself at her with ravenous insanity.

"Sindis!" Imani shouted. The two vampires intercepted David. His clawed hands snapped closed inches from Gabrielle's throat, and then he was back across the room, pinned against the wall by Sindis and Imani. He kicked and struggled like a thing possessed, Inhuman gurgling roars issued from his throat.

"David!" Sindis said sharply. His blazing eyes turned to her. She nodded to him. "You must!"

She lifted her head, inclining it to him.

"What are you doing?" Imani asked, but it was too late.

David fastened on the Amazon warrior's throat and the two of them sank to the floor.

Gabrielle felt pure horror, mixed with revulsion, well up within her throat as he fixed his eyes upon her while he drank.

Sindis sighed in rapture and let the moment flow between them.

A look of dawning appeared in David's eyes and he withdrew, letting Sindis fall to the floor as he scooted away, coughing in horror.

"Jesus Christ!" he gagged.

Sindis rolled over and weakly picked herself off the floor, her hand straying to the rapidly healing puncture wounds on her throat.

Gabrielle hovered at the doorway, her hand covering her mouth in revulsion, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Sindis raised a hand toward her.

"It's okay," she said weakly. "He'll be all right now."

Imani's expression was one of relief, but her eyes spoke of disapproval. Then she looked down at the horrified David.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him curtly.

"I just played Bella Lugosi on someone!" David shot back angrily. "How the hell do you think I'm feeling?" He put his hand over his mouth. When he saw the blood on his fingers, he grabbed the nearest article of clothing and wiped furiously at his hands and mouth.

"Christ on a god damned crutch!" he cursed as he sat back against the wall. "Me and my bright fucking ideas!"

His hand shot out, shattering the material to powder and leaving a decent sized hole in it. Then he put his head in his hands and said nothing.

Gabrielle slowly stepped over to his side. The other two creatures did nothing to stop her.

When she knelt before him, she could hear him breathing hard as the emotions rose in him.

"Worthless, idiotic bald headed son of a bitch," he was muttering.

When he looked up again, his eyes were the blazing green, but there was murder in them.

"I've had enough of this!" He hissed. "We need to find Utanhk!"

"I know where he is," Sindis offered. This brought a reproving glare from Imani. "You won't like what you find."

"At this point," David growled. "I really don't give a rat's ass!"

Sindis sighed. "He's in the main temple."

Gabrielle quickly grabbed some spare clothing and her Sais. Then the four of them headed towards the temple with David in the lead. As they passed the outer arch, David's sword came out in his hand. He sliced at a wooden pole sticking from the ground and then hacked an angled point on either end, handing it to Gabrielle. "Go for the heart."

Outside the temple entrance was a sacred fountain, decorated with hieroglyphs of the God Osirus. David dipped the blade of his sword in the clear water as he passed. He flicked the excess from the blade, nearly hitting Sindis with the spray.

Sindis nimbly jumped back away from the acidic water.

"Oh Lucy!" David shouted as they entered. "I'm home!"

The words died on his lips as he beheld the scene.

The main chamber of the temple was a slaughterhouse. Bodies lay everywhere as if they had been cast aside like unwanted dolls. Blood covered the walls and in some places stained the ceiling. Some of the bodies were horribly mutilated.

"So much for a stealthy entrance," Imani commented.

"Stealthy, my ass!" David growled as he surveyed the carnage. "I want that prick to know we're coming!" He began stalking towards the large double doors at the far end of the chamber.

Several figures emerged from the shadows between the columns. Half a dozen in all, their eyes shone red in the gloom.

David recognized them as some of the lesser priests from the other day.

"Evening, boys," David said coldly. "Where's the boss?"

In one move, the priests attacked.

David sidestepped quickly, his blade slicing into the middle of the first priest. At the touch of his blessed blade, the attacker exploded in a shower of smoldering ash. A second quickly followed suit as David spun back around and ran his blade through his throat.

Gabrielle met a third priest head on. The creature ran right onto the crude wooden staff. It screamed an inhuman cry of pain before it sank to the ground.

Gabrielle drove her forearm into the wood, snapping the makeshift stake off in its chest and effectively creating another one. She spun the weapon with experienced ease and squared up against the next creature.

Sindis grappled with a fifth creature, and a lethal move, ripped the head from its body. Both fell with a sickening plop onto the hard stone floor.

Imani was off to one side, sucking the life out of another.

Four more priests charged from concealment, snapping and frothing like demons.

Again David seemed to float on air as he swung his weapon with deadly accuracy. Another vampire fell under his assault. Gabrielle fended off two more until Sindis bowled over one of them. The distraction gave Gabrielle the split second she needed and she impaled her remaining opponent through the chest.

Blood erupted from the wound, spraying over her as she drove him back against a column.

Imani intercepted the last one and with graceful movements, like a dancer, her claws slashed through the priest's robes and flesh, sending him staggering, though it did not kill him. Then David's sword descended and bisected the skull vertically before withdrawing and severing the cloven head with a vicious horizontal sweep.

The chamber fell silent, except for the soft pattering of blood dripping on the floor somewhere.

Near the front of the chamber, a single foot fall was heard.

Slowly, David turned his eyes in that direction and saw Utanhk, no longer in priest robes, but wearing the golden cross braces of Egyptian armor. In his hand he held a large, two handed Egyptian chopper. Its bronze blade shone red in the flickering torchlight, as did his eyes.

"He has fed on the majority of the people here," Imani said quietly. "It has made him powerful."

"And mad," Sindis finished, nursing a vicious gash in her shoulder.

"Mad?" his voice echoed, low and demonic in the chamber. "I have saved Ka-Ma'at!"

"Saved?" David asked in horror. "Bud, in less than a week, you've sunk a city, shattered the pyramids and re-routed the course of the Nile! That sounds like three major fuck ups to me?"

I have preserved this place for eternity!" Utanhk roared insanely. "The city of Alexandria, safe beneath the sea, and Giza, in the wastelands of a desert that none will dare cross!" His smile was insane and showed elongated eye teeth, dripping with saliva.

"I shall do the same to all of Khemet! I shall deliver the land of the God Kings to Osirus as a gift!"

"Oh, yeah," David nodded. "You're gone."

He flung his hand out.

"Onobis Illuminotis!" he roared.

The wave of energy rocketed through the chamber, burning the bodies of the dead. At the same moment, Utanhk also raised his hand and cried defiantly.

"Ka-Shada-Ne!"

It seemed that a wall of light and shadow collided near the far end of the chamber and halted, each vying for dominance.

The energy of the spells crackled in the room, causing the stones to rumble dangerously. Portions of the fine murals on the wall fell away as green chutes of energy licked them with dangerous power.

David's face glistened red with a sheen of bloody sweat as he pushed with all his might, trying to beat back Utanhk's counter spell.

Suddenly his sword was wrenched form his hand and Gabrielle charged across the room raising the weapon to strike.

David roared in rage and pushed even harder, trying to force his energy past Utanhk's defenses before Gabrielle reached her target.

Sindis was practically jumping in anticipation of her own attack, once the energies were spent.

Utanhk saw Gabriele coming and hissed in delight. He also raised his weapon to meet hers.

The Sword of Power whistled around and came down at Utanhk's blade. It sliced through the bronze and then through the priests outstretched left arm, just below the elbow.

Utanhk cried out in pain and then the wave of energy hit him full force. He blackened in an instant and then exploded in a shower of fiery sparks and hot ash.

The force of the blast threw Gabrielle into the shadows and knocked the rest of them over.

David was back on his feet and running towards the darkened corner of the room.

"Gabrielle!" he shouted desperately. He saw her through the red hot haze in his vision, picking herself up off the stone floor. She was beaten, bruised, but smiling in satisfaction.

David smiled n relief, and then his gaze went dark. "Are you out of your freakin skull?" he blurted out. "He could have killed you!"

Gabrielle wiped the sword on her skirt and looked at it lovingly.

"This sword opens the Fountain of Strength on Japa," she said with a smile. "Do you honestly think that a Bronze Age weapon would have stopped it?"

"Well I," David stammered. "It might have!" he finally blurted. He shook his head, his mind torn between anger and joy. "Of all the crazy ideas! That one is definitely in the top five!" He wrapped his arms about her and held her tightly.

When they emerged form the shadows, Imani and Sindis stood there, waiting.

Imani's eyes were cold and natural, while Sindis seemed to fidget uncomfortably.

"It is done," Imani said simply. "Our debts," she indicated David. "Are paid." Then she fixed her cool eyes on Gabrielle.

"And once again," she smiled frostily. "We have crossed paths and you have survived. The next time we meet, one of us will not survive."

"Not much on the live and let live philosophy, are you?" David said.

"Regardless of what has transpired here," Imani replied with that same frosty smile. "I still owe a debt to Gabrielle and Xena for the death of Nickoli. Xena is gone, and so I am satisfied in part." Her eyes fixed on Gabrielle. "But you still live."

She stared at them both for a moment. "Since you have saved my home from destruction, I shall not harm you while you are here. Once you cross the borders of Khemet, your protection is over." She looked at the Amazon woman beside her. "Come, Sindis."

Sindis looked at Gabrielle and David, then back at Imani.

"No," she finally said.

One dark eyebrow rose. "No?"

Sindis stepped over beside Gabrielle.

"I will not be going with you, Imani," Sindis said quietly.

Imani looked at the trio with amusement. "There is no going back for you, Amazon," she said. "Where will you go? With them? You would betray your own kind for them?"

"They are my kind," Sindis replied with a hint of anger.

A look of distaste appeared on Imani's face. It melted into disgust.

"Very well," she said contemptuously. "I could not bear the company of one such as you anyway. A feeder on pigs and goats!" She spat and turned to go. "Pray that we never meet again."

"Imani," David called after her. The vampire turned back to face him.

"Understand something." David continued. "My people have had two thousand years to strain the truth from the lies of Arijani. We have also discovered other methods of combating your kind that you probably know nothing about. If you come upon us and consider trying to take our lives, think real hard about the risks before you strike. Chances are that you would not survive. You have been warned."

She stared into David's fiery eyes and realized that there was no deception there. He did hold knowledge, vast and dangerous.

Fear appeared on her face for only an instant before her calm, icy countenance reasserted itself. She bowed her head and departed.

David watched her until she had passed beyond the entrance, then he looked sidelong at Sindis.

"You fed on pigs?" he asked.

Sindis shrugged. "After last night, I couldn't bring myself to kill another human being."

Gabrielle smiled. "Well, you have to start somewhere?"

Sindis smiled regretfully. "I realize that I have quite a bit to atone for."

David looked at Gabriele and smiled.

"Sounds like someone you used to know?" David offered.

Gabrielle nodded. "Yeah, she turned out alright in the end." She looked into Sindis's eyes. "You will to. I know it."

"As a creature of the night?" Sindis looked at them helplessly. "How do you think people are going to react when they meet me?"

"Yeah," David said. "About that. I think we might be able to do something regarding your sensitivity to UV."

"UV?" Sindis asked.

"Sunlight, sis," David smiled.

"You have a plan," Gabrielle smiled knowingly. Then she looked at Sindis. "He has a plan. I always know when he has a plan. He gets that look."

David smiled and shook his head. "Call it a wild idea that we can look into. A theory that I think we should explore." He looked down at his pale hands and sighed.

"After I get some sun in the morning. I need a bath, a drink and some real food."

"About that," Gabrielle said uneasily. "The river's gone. How do we keep you from, you know?"

"The cisterns should still be full," David mused. "We use the bath n the eastern most apartment, knock the outer wall open and have some extra water on hand in case things really start to cook?" They exited the temple and went back to the guest houses. One of the upper floor suites seemed ideal for the task. While Gabrielle and Sindis ran to gather extra pitchers of water, David easily knocked a huge opening in the eastern wall, exposing the tranquil shadows o f the desert, bathed in the pale moon.

The sky was brightening when the task was complete.

Sindis watched the growing light anxiously.

"Get out of here, kiddo," David said as he began to disrobe. "You don't want to be here for the sunrise. Not yet."

Sindis looked at Gabrielle, who nodded, and then she quickly leaned forward and kissed David on the cheek.

"Tonight then?" she asked a little nervously.

"We'll be here." David reassured her. "Now get going."

Sindis glanced once more at the brightening sky and then darted from the complex towards the necropolis.

David watched her go, and then finished undressing.

"Whoa," he said as he stepped into the tub. "That's cold."

Gabrielle watched the paling sky. "It won't be for much longer."

All too quickly, the sun erupted from the eastern horizon and David instantly felt the fire rage within his veins. He dropped into the tub and curled up, feeling the conflagration begin. His body thrashed and writhed beneath the water. It boiled and steamed away almost as fast as Gabrielle could keep pouring more in. The process seemed to take forever.

Finally, David jumped up from the water and struggled to climb over the edge/

"Hot!" David was saying quickly. "Hot, hot, hot!"

Gabrielle pulled him out of the boiling tub and let him slide back against the warm stone. Then she grabbed two pitchers and poured the cool water over his shoulders.

David let out an audible sigh of relief as the water flowed over his body.

She set the empty jugs aside and knelt down to examine him.

The fiery green of his eyes was gone and the gentle, thoughtful brown was back.

He fumbled wearily for her hand and squeezed it.

"Just promise me one thing," he said.

She nodded eagerly.

"Promise me that we will never do anything remotely like this again."

Gabrielle smiled and held him. "That's a promise."

"Good," David sighed. Then his gaze got critical. "How do I know you'll keep this one?"

Gabrielle looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you already broke the promise we made on the boat," David said.

"I did not!"

"Yes you did," David continued. "You promised to let me do some things on my own, because we both agreed that things of that sort might come up."

"Ah, ah," Gabrielle held up a finger. "But we also reserved the right to jump in if the other was in trouble."

"I wasn't in trouble." David said defensively. "I had everything under control."

"You were overmatched," Gabrielle replied, smiling.

"I was not overmatched." David retorted. "I could have taken him at any time."

"No you couldn't," Gabrielle smiled. "Otherwise you would have."

"I was playing with him. I was just about to finish him off when you grabbed my sword and charged in there!"

"Oh, sure you were," Gabrielle's smile widened, and David also smiled.

"I think we need some clauses in this agreement," he said. "A definition of when one should or shouldn't interfere-"

Her mouth closed on his and silenced him.


	7. The Tomb Of Osirus

**The Tomb Of Osirus**

They had finished packing the large knapsack when Sindis appeared on the balcony, shortly after sundown. The chill of the desert flowed through the opening.

"Hey, Sin," David greeted her. "Have a nice rest?"

Sindis sighed. "The sleeping by day isn't the problem. It's feeding on pigs. That's the problem. It's like drinking bitter water."

She spat as if the taste still filled her mouth.

"Well," David mused as he assembled the components of his bow with automatic efficiency. "If all goes well. Tonight will be your last night living on pig tartar."

"So," Gabrielle asked. "You've kept me in suspense al day! What's the idea?"

"To find the Book of the Dead," David replied easily. "Somewhere in the Tomb of Osirus." He looked back at the two of them. "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Sindis asked. "What good is a book going to do me?"

"Oh this isn't just any book," David grinned as he strung the bow. "This is the mother of all magic books! The ultimate Book of Shadows, if you like?"

Gabrielle was smiling in appreciation. "That spot you were judging from the corner of the pyramid the other day? Right?"

"Ten points to the lady," David announced. He tested his bow and slung it and a quiver of arrows over his shoulder.

Looking back, he saw Gabrielle sliding her sais into her boots.

"Ready?" He asked.

Both girls nodded.

David reached down and tossed Gabrielle the bow she had discovered in Xena's old weapons cache.

"Just in case," he offered.

Gabrielle slung the weapon and her own quiver over her shoulder.

The trio made their way through the courtyard and past the front of the Great Sphinx, on their way to the dock.

They stopped at the rear of their ship, now lying completely on its side in the quickly drying mud.

The three of them dropped into the riverbed and began moving up the course of the water towards a large, flat outcropping of rock that had previously been completely submerged. As they moved to the front of it, David felt his mouth drop open. Before him was the final gate that he had seen in his dreamscape. The gate he had swerved aside to miss.

"I'll be dipped in," he caught himself before he finished that statement and stepped up to the doorway. Cool moist air flowed from it like a killing vapor. The opening gaped at them like the mouth of midnight.

"I wish I could still see in the dark," David said to himself.

Sindis heard him and shrugged.

"It wouldn't have helped," she admitted. "I can't se anything either."

"Uh huh," David nodded. "Well, then. When eyes fail, technology must suffice."

He reached into his coat and drew out three long thin, cloudy white plastic rods.

"I thought these might come in handy exploring the pyramids," he mused. "Who'd have thunk it?"

He handed one to each of his companions. They looked at the things curiously.

"Just smack them hard against the stone and shake," David said. He did so and there was an audible crack. Instantly the rod began to glow a brilliant orange. "Like so," he smiled.

Gabrielle shook her head in appreciation while Sindis merely gaped at him in shock.

"Magic?" she asked.

"Chemistry," David replied as he stepped into the opening.

Gabrielle smacked her rod against the stone and it also glowed to life.

"He's full of interesting surprises like that," she told Sindis. "After a while you get used to it."

Sindis also activated her glow rod and followed them within, marveling that the light burned brightly, yet there was no heat.

David slung his bow and drew out his bowie knife, holding it in his right hand while he thrust the glow rod over his head and forward. The orange light revealed a long passage that plunged straight into the plateau, vanishing into blackness beyond the glow.

The walls were smooth and only slightly eroded from constant exposure to water. The entire place smelled of slime and decaying water plants.

"You know where you're going, right?" Sindis asked timidly. "I mean, the way you knew about the entrance. You've been here before?"

"Yup," David replied.

"When?" Sindis asked.

"IN about two thousand years," David said.

Gabrielle turned back to Sindis and smiled. "See what I mean?"

She watched Gabrielle follow after David, still mildly shocked.

"No!" She hissed.

They continued down for several hundred feet until they entered a large dark chamber. Several stone walkways rested just above a pool of dark water, the remains of the Nile waters left from the recession of the river. The air was cool and dank, and they heard the constant sound of dripping water.

In the center of the room, just above the level of the water was the lid of a large ornate sarcophagus.

On the other three walls, more passages split off in three directions.

They all paused as they heard a slight sizzling noise. Suddenly, Sindis squealed in pain and fright, jumping back into the main passage, smoke rising from her feet.

David and Gabrielle were at her side instantly.

"What happened?" Gabrielle asked urgently.

Sindis was pulling her boots off as quickly as she could. The flesh of the soles of her feet were blistered and smoking.

"Of course," David nodded. "Hallowed earth, holy water."

Sindis was nearly in tears.

"Easy now," David said gently. "There's a way around this."

"What?"

David smiled. "I'll carry you. It can't burn you if you don't touch it, right?"

Sindis and Gabrielle looked out at the narrow paths of stone traversing the pool.

"But if you fall?" Sindis's eyes were wide in horror.

"Then don't panic and jump around," David replied easily. "And it'll be a walk in the park."

David handed his bow, quiver and glow rod to Gabrielle, and then he let Sindis climb onto his back, like he was giving a child a pig a back ride. He took the glow rod back and stared out at the stone walks through the chamber.

"You okay?" He looked up at Sindis who merely closed her eyes and held on.

David slowly moved out onto the narrow walkway. The stones were nearly two feet thick, but the added danger of the holy water made him feel as if he were walking on a balance beam.

Looking up, he saw dozens of metal protuberances hanging from the ceiling, most of them coated with a thin layer of slime and water. Ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions covered the walls and ceiling.

David made the first fifteen feet to the inner square surrounding the sarcophagus. He turned gently and continued another six feet to the next turn and then continued towards the far entrance.

"Nearly there," David grunted under the weight. "Just a bit further."

Sindis risked a peek and then closed her eyes again. The opposite entrance seemed miles away. She could feel the water vapor in the air scratching at her lungs and she coughed.

David froze at the sudden movement.

"Easy," He cautioned. "It would suck to make it three quarters of the way and then fall in."

Sindis laughed in spite of her horror.

They were nearly at the opposite end when suddenly, one of the stones shifted under David's feet. HE felt his body shift too far and struggled to keep his balance, but it was no good. He knew he was about to take a plunge.

"Sindis!" he shouted, pushing up with his arms as he toppled over. Jump for it!"

Sindis grasped the damp metal hanging from the ceiling, felt the moisture begin to burn her hands the instant she touched it. She screamed in pain as David fell sideways out from beneath her and hit the dark water with a splash.

Some of the spray landed on the young Amazon, and she felt it eat away at her skin where it touched.

She screamed again and then swung towards the opening. Her body just cleared the threshold and she landed in a painful heap on the other side.

David bobbed up and looked about, sighing in relief when he saw Sindis safe in the opposite passage. Then he looked down for his glow rod. It lay at the bottom of the three foot pool, on a scattering of pale bones.

Instantly, he was out of the water and on the walkway again.

No sooner was he out when he spied the silvery cloud of fish shooting past him, their tiny black eyes searching hungrily for prey.

"Ooo," he grimaced. He looked back toward Gabrielle, working her way along the outer track.

"Uh, honey?" he said urgently. "Better get a move on."

"What is it?" Gabrielle asked.

"Better you don't ask," David replied. "Just take my word for it."

Gabrielle reached down and drew her sais out, clutching the glow rod in her teeth.

In the soft illumination, David saw the subtle ripple in the water as the school of fish approached Gabrielle.

"Gabby!" David hissed. "Freeze! Don't move!"

Gabrielle looked down at the water beside her feet and saw the tiny silver objects milling about just beneath the surface.

Slowly, David knelt next to the water and splashed his bowie knife on the glassy surface.

Instantly, the school of deadly fish shot away from Gabrielle towards this new disturbance.

"Go!" David said quickly. He continued his distraction, watching the water ripple closer to him.

Gabrielle moved as fast as she dared.

At the last instant, David pulled his knife out and brought the double thick canvas coat up covering his body as best he could.

Dozens of small silver shapes leapt out of the water and bit into the cloth of the coat with needle teeth.

Gabrielle watched in horror for only a moment, and then she dunked her leg into the water and splashed loudly. The attacking school of fish, receiving only bitter cloth for their efforts turned and shot back in her direction.

David looked up and saw Gabrielle running for the passage.

"Go! Go! Go!" She shouted at him. He turned and also ran for the opening.

David got there first and turned to receive Gabrielle. The water rippled angrily, gaining on her by the moment.

Gabrielle bypassed the last few feet of the walkway and leapt. Dozens of small silvery shapes burst from the water right behind her. Sindis retreated up the passage while David caught Gabrielle in his arms and leapt deeper into the passage out of the way of the flying carnivorous.

They landed with a squelching thud in the muck.

Looking back, they saw several of the things wriggling on the floor, their black, pitiless eyes fixed on them, even in death, tiny jaws snapping at the air. One by one, they each ceased moving.

The three of them got to their feet and edged closer to the nearest one for a better look. As they watched, the fish seemed to flatten and melt into the stones, leaving only a small smudge of wet discoloration on the floor where it had thrashed about.

"Okay," David mused. "That wasn't in any of the ancient texts I've ever read?"

"What were those things?" Sindis asked, her body trembling.

"Some kind of piranha," David mused. "I think?"

He rose to his feet and looked up the passage.

"Sphinx, this way, I hope?" he guessed aloud.

The ground began to climb gently upward and eventually, the soft wet muck under their feet changed to dry dusty stone.

"This is promising," David said as they moved forward. Their footfalls sent clouds of dust up in their wake and thick cobwebs sometimes stretched completely across the passage.

They reached a second chamber, nearly thirty feet across and ten feet high.

On the wall to their right was another archway, this one blocked by a large ornate stone door, decorated in fine metals and flanked by two statues of the jackal headed God, Anubis.

"Well, well," David grinned. "I do believe we have found it."

He began moving toward the door.

"Wait!" Sindis said suddenly, her green eyes fixed on the door ahead. At the same moment, the two Anubis statues became animate and stepped to block the door. Each of them held a crook in one hand and a flail in the other, the symbols of the Egyptian Kings.

David froze and slowly backed away. The two statues resumed their original positions, their flinty eyes seeming to watch them with cold anticipation.

"Can't you hear them?" Sindis was saying nervously.

Gabrielle and David looked at her in concern. Her eyes were wide with horror.

"I can't hear anything?' Gabrielle admitted.

David also shook his head.

"They're saying that only the dead may enter," Sindis's voice was trembling.

David looked back at the doorway and then his head turned back to Sindis.

She looked at him, her eyes wide.

"Oh no," She stammered. "David, I can't do this!"

"You have to," David replied. "They won't let Gabrielle and me past."

"And how do you know they'll let me by?" Sindis asked in a shrill voice.

David shrugged. "Because, to them you are already dead?"

That statement struck a chord with Sindis and momentarily subdued her fear, replacing it with a scornful expression.

"Sorry," David shrugged. "But it is the truth."

HE stepped over to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Listen," he said. "You might be able to get close enough to open that door. If you can, that means that you'll also be close enough to smash those two Chihuahua's into powder. Then, we go in together? See?"

She looked at him in panic.

"Sindis," David said calmly. "You're not going to do this on your own. I give you my word."

She looked at Gabrielle, who merely nodded her head in encouragement.

Her eyes fixed on the two stone guardians. Then something like a dreadful calm seemed to come over her and she stopped trembling. Her eyes flashed a dull crimson for a moment.

She moved slowly towards the door. The two statues remained still, their eyes fixed stolidly forward.

Sindis reached the door, her hands touching the finely wrought metal encasing it. Suddenly, her eyes flashed a brilliant red and with a hiss, she spun and smashed first one and then the second statue. The stone shattered into fragments under her assault.

David and Gabrielle rushed forward, coughing in the dusty air.

"Nicely done," he said appreciatively. "Now, let's see about this door."

"Only the dead may enter there," a voice said calmly behind them. This time they all heard it.

Slowly, they al turned and saw a single figure standing in the center of the room, dressed in the ceremonial garb of the pharaohs, the whole wrapped in fine white linen.

His skin was a pale green in color and his eyes were deep and black.

His eyes were deep and thoughtful, set in a handsome face. His crown rose red and white from his head.

"Osirus?" Gabrielle stammered. The figure only looked at her and nodded, a faint smile on his lips.

"An interesting little riddle," he said thoughtfully. "One who has lived beyond her years, another which lives before his years, and the third, beyond life?"

David only smiled grimly and bowed his head.

"Tell me?" he asked as he stepped toward them. "How can this be? Two of you have lived past the time of judgment?" He fixed his dark eyes on David. "And you have not yet been born into a life to be judged?"

"It is a long story, My King," David said, his eyes still focused on the ground, body tense.

"Does this tale also tell of how you knew to find my resting place?" Osirus asked.

"It does," David replied.

One cool, pale green finger lifted David's chin. David looked into the eyes of the God.

"I have seen you of late," he said knowingly. "You turned aside before reaching my door? Why have you returned?"

"We seek your help, My King," David said carefully. "She who is beyond life, seeks to reclaim it?"

"Once life is lost," Osirus replied. "It cannot be reclaimed."

"But it isn't lost completely," David said. "Otherwise she would have stood in your hall by now. Her spirit still lives. It is her body that has been robbed of life."

Osirus stepped over before Sindis and studied her for a long moment, his eyes gazing deeply into her pale green ones.

"We thought that your book would contain the incantation that would reverse what has been done to her?" David explained.

Osirus fixed his gaze on Sindis again. "You are consumed by darkness, child," he said evenly. "Yet, within your soul I see a flicker of light. Do you believe that light is enough to sustain you?"

Sindis looked into his eyes for a moment and then hung her head.

"I don't know," she admitted.

At that the god actually laughed a sweet gentle laugh.

"An honest answer," he said in surprise. "It has been so long since I have heard an honest answer."

He turned to Gabrielle and David. "And what of you?" he asked. "Would you be judged by the scales?"

Gabrielle shook her head.

He looked at David. "And you?"

David smiled with grim realization. "If you were to weigh my heart against the feather of truth," he offered. "My heart would probably break your scale."

Again, Osirus laughed gently. "For too long have I heard the words of the unworthy, read from my book. To hear this is refreshing beyond compare. For that alone, I should grant you what you desire." Then he gaze seemed to harden.

"But a life returned can also be squandered," he continued. "What proof do I have that she will not abandon the path she has chosen, once her life is restored in full?"

Again, Sindis had no answer. She seemed resigned to the fact that she would remain as she was.

It was David who spoke up.

"My Lord," He said cautiously. "I cannot promise that which I do not know I can keep. Can we say that she will try to live a good life, if given the chance? Yes, I can offer that. But we are not perfect. We all make mistakes. That is why we depend on your wisdom so much? And your understanding."

"I can only promise to try," Sindis said quietly.

Osirus placed a cool hand on the Amazon woman's shoulder and smiled.

"And that was all that I ask," he said. He raised his hand and the sound of large bolts sliding could be heard on the opposite side of the door. Then the door slid open without as much as a creak.

Sindis looked back into the dark void.

"Sindis of the Amazons," Osirus said. "I offer you a choice. I can return your body to life, or return the life of another. Which will you choose?"

Sindis looked at the god steadily and then sighed. "Return Yania," she said at last.

"Very well," Osirus replied. In the chamber behind them, there was a sudden burst of golden sunlight. A single column that blinded them all for a moment.

"If that is your wish," Osirus said evenly. "Then go."

"Wait a minute!" David blurted in surprise. He turned to Osirus.

"David!" Sindis said sharply. He looked at her, his eyes wide. She smiled. "It's all right. This is what I want."

She turned and walked towards the light, feeling its heat already pressing against her preternatural flesh.

"Sindis!" Gabrielle cried and she ran after her. An invisible barrier stopped her at the entrance.

David looked at Sindis, walking towards the inferno and then back at Osirus.

"Stop this!" He begged.

"She has made the choice," Osirus replied.

"The hell she has," David growled and he went after her. He stopped at the barrier and put his fingers out, trying to penetrate it as he did with most other energies. For the first time in his life, he failed completely to push even a finger through it.

"Sindis!"

She paused at the edge of the column and looked at him. She smiled in a way the kindled rage in his heart.

"You're going to stop this," he growled and he turned and stalked towards the god, all pretense at reverence lost.

Osirus simply held out his hand and David felt his whole body go stiff. It was as if he had become rooted in place. His eyes blazed with wrath.

"I took her sisters life!" he bellowed. "If anyone should pay for that! It's me!" He struggled with every muscle in his body against the spell, but the only thing he managed was to turn his head and look back.

Smiling, Sindis stepped into the column of light. There was a blinding flash and the young woman seemed to disintegrate in a matter of a few moments.

Suddenly, David was free. He ran for the door, but it slammed shut before he reached it. He threw his body against the unyielding stone.

"You son of a bitch!" He cried. He slammed his fist against the door to no avail and then he went perfectly still, his chest heaving. Gabrielle almost felt the pressure building within him. Instantly, his sword was drawn and he wheeled to face the god.

Gabrielle interposed herself between him and Osirus. She wrapped her arms about his waist and struggled to hold him back.

"You worthless son of a bitch!" David screamed at him. "She didn't deserve that and you fucking know it!"

Osirus's face was impassive.

David's wrath expended itself, falling into grief and he slid to the floor. The sobs burst from him like gasps of pain, his weapon clattered on the stones. Gabrielle whispered quietly in his ear, trying to ease his pain, and then she looked at Osirus, her own eyes ablaze with fury.

Osirus studied them for a long moment, and then he smiled faintly.

"You asked that she be returned to the light," he explained. "And she asked that her sister be returned also. This has been done." He fixed his dark eyes on Gabrielle. "And you?"

"How could you do anything?" Gabrielle hissed. "Yania died in Amazon lands, under the watch of the Greek Gods!"

"Who are currently not as abundant as they once were," Osirus finished for her. He smiled at her.

Gabrielle looked at him, completely astonished.

"I have heard your dreams in my lands, child," Osirus said to Gabrielle. "And I know also what you wish. That also shall be granted, though not in the way you expect?"

Gabrielle opened her mouth to ask a question, but never got the chance. Instead, she and David were momentarily blinded by a brilliant flash, and then they were out above the ground, in the temple courtyard. In the east, the sky was ablaze with the pre sun dawn.

David looked up and his fury blazed anew. "Kick us out, will he!" he snarled. He got to his feet and began stalking back to the entrance of the tomb. "I don't think so!"

Another sound caught their attention and he stopped, looking back.

Just past Gabrielle, he saw two other figures lying in the courtyard.

Gabrielle turned and looked, her eyes wide.

"Sindis?" she gasped.

The young Amazon woman was pulling herself upright. When her weary eyes saw the sky, she covered her face and cried out in fear as the sun burst over the horizon.

Then her eyes saw the other figure lying nearby. She paused for a moment, still expecting the coming immolation that was daylight. Then she realized that it wasn't happening.

The second figure also began to stir, her mane of blondish hair turned and she looked up at Sindis with familiar eyes.

"Yania?" Sindis asked, not daring to believe it.

"Sindis?" Yania asked in a thick, weary voice. "Where am I? The last thing I remember-" she stopped short when she saw David standing, sword in hand, staring at her in complete disbelief.

Quickly, Yania staggered to her feet, hands out in a fighting posture.

"No!"' Sindis cried quickly. "No! Wait!"

At the same time, David looked down at the weapon in his hand and quickly sheathed it, his other hand out in a staying gesture.

"But he?' Yania gasped in fright. "I was, and he-"

"It's over, Yania," Gabrielle said calmly. "It's time for all of us to go home."

Yania looked at David with obvious apprehension. David merely smiled and gave a polite bow. "Look," he stammered. "Uh, well, I guess the only thing I can say is, um, sorry?"

Yania stared at him for a moment longer. Then she looked at Sindis nervously.

"It's all right, sis," Sindis reassured her. "He's not going to hurt you."

"No," Gabrielle agreed. "Evil demons and mysterious gods seem to be his specialty."

"Oh!" David smiled. "That was a joke, right?"

Gabrielle smiled at him. "Can we go home now?"

David shrugged. He looked at the two Amazon women still staring at him, one with gratitude and the other with trepidation. Well, that would be cured as they traveled.

"Fine," David agreed, heading down towards the dock.

As they walked, they suddenly heard a thunderous crash behind them. David wheeled and saw the Sphinx looking down at them with stony, painted eyes.

"Ah man," David moaned. "Look at that! And I never even got a good look before it happened?"

The three women looked up at the monument and gasped. The nose had fallen off!

"Well," Gabrielle offered. "Is that the way your people will find it in the future?"

David nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Then I guess everything is alright after all?" Gabrielle smiled and hooked her arm through his. The reached the riverbed and began walking towards the coast.

As the sun rose and the heat with it, David shrugged out of his long coat and then cried out in despair.

The three women looked at him questioningly.

"Look at this!" he said bitterly. He held up the part of the coat that had been chewed by the countless fish. "This is my favorite coat. Man! You think the least Ozzie could have done was fix that?"

The laughter of the three women drifted back down the river bed and into the black entrance to the Tomb of Osirus as the sun shone into the inner sanctum of the sleeping God.

All else was silence.

END


End file.
